


The Price of Redemption

by MidnightStorm6593



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M, Season 3 - AU, post 3x15
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-28
Updated: 2016-03-23
Packaged: 2018-04-11 17:47:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 27,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4445870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidnightStorm6593/pseuds/MidnightStorm6593
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I don't want anything from you," Elijah tells her. "Well, I suppose that's not entirely true. But it's hardly as sinister as you'd believe. I simply want us to reach an understanding and maybe even forgiveness."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

She doesn't sleep. Or she can't. She's honestly not sure which. She's not sure it makes a difference.

It's not the first time she's suffered from a bout of insomnia. It had happened after Grams died, and when Jeremy cheated on her, and when she thought she really would die from trying to kill Klaus, and so forth. It's not a surprise it'd happen again now that her mother's a vampire.

Every time she closes her eyes, she remembers the fear she felt when she really thought Stefan would kill her, she hears a resounding  _crack_ echo in the otherwise eerily silent house.

So, she lays awake in the bed in the guestroom she and Caroline had been sharing in Abby's house.

Abby and Caroline had gone out hunting and they haven't been back in a while. Bonnie's not surprised or worried, though. Or at least she tries not to be worried. She figures that this sort of thing can take a while…especially since Abby is already having a hard enough time with the transition.

A knock on the door has her sitting up in confusion. Who the hell would be at the door this time of night?

She tentatively slides out of bed, her bare feet making soft padding sounds on the hardwood floor and she moves from the guestroom to the foyer to reach the front door. She hesitates, her hand hovering above the door knob, thinking that maybe it could be Damon or Elena or any number of people the she honestly didn't want to see…or couldn't quite face yet.

Taking a deep breath she twists the knob, pulling door open, only to reveal Elijah Mikaelson on the other side of the door.

"Good evening, Miss. Bennett."

"Evening? It's midnight?" She says tightly once she finds her words again. "What the hell are you doing here?" She really wants nothing more than to slam the door in his face right now.

"I apologize for the late hour, but it is important that we talk," he says calmly, tucking a hand in one of the pockets of his immaculate suit.

"You're insane if you think you're going to get invited in," Bonnie hisses, her grip on the door tightening to the point where her knuckles turn white.

"You misunderstand me. I don't need an invitation. I'm merely being polite."

_He doesn't need an invitation because of what's happened to Abby,_ Bonnie realizes much to her own horror.

"We have nothing to talk about. You made yourself perfectly clear when you sent Stefan and Damon to kill me and my mother." She's surprised but relieved that her voice comes out so evenly given that she's more than a little shaken on the inside.

"Bonnie?" comes Jamie's tired voice. "Who's at the door? Is something wrong?"

"Don't worry about it," Bonnie says, not turning to look at Jamie. "He was just leaving."

And with that, she slams the door right in his face.

She ignores Jamie's questions as she heads back to the guestroom. It's not until she's laying down and staring at the ceiling, still unable to sleep, that she realizes she's shaking.

* * *

She's greeted the next morning to Caroline scrambling some eggs (or at least attempting to) and cheerfully humming.

"Good morning," she greets perkily. Way  _too_ perkily. "So, thing didn't exactly go marvelously last night, but they could have been a lot worse. I keep trying to talk Abby into blood bags instead of forest animals because I think it would make things easier, but she really hates the idea, so…"

She bites her lip at Bonnie's non-responsiveness.

"Uh, oh! You left your grimoire out on the front porch last night," she says, pointing her spatula at the kitchen table where an old book lay.

With a frown, Bonnie walks to the table, picking up the tome.

"This isn't mine…" Bonnie trails off in confusion, sitting down. She delicately flips through the yellowed pages in confusion.

"What? Why would someone randomly leave a grimoire on the front porch?" Caroline asks, her face scrunching up.

Bonnie shakes her head, having no answers.

_Maybe Elijah left it?_ She wonders.  _But why…he probably wants something. He always does. Everyone always does._

Her eye catches something inside the front cover of the grimoire. It's old and faded handwriting, but if she squints, she can just make it out.

_Ernestine Bennett._

Emily's mother.

If Elijah really left this, how did he even have it in the first place? Did he know Ernestine? Did he know Emily?

"Damn!" Caroline curses as she suddenly seems to remember the eggs in the frying pan. "So, they're a little burned," she says as she shuffles them onto some plates, "But they're still edible!" She offers a plate to Bonnie.

"Thanks, but I'm not hungry," Bonnie murmurs, still staring at the name written in the grimoire.

"Too bad, you're eating anyway," Caroline informs her, shutting the grimoire and moving it to the side before setting the plate down in front of Bonnie with a  _clank._

Bonnie sighs and gives Caroline a look. She knows there's no point in arguing when Caroline's in full out caretaker mode.

"I know it doesn't seem like it right now, but things  _will_ be okay," Caroline tells her softly. "I mean, Abby turned for you, so that means  _something."_

"No, she didn't," Bonnie says, pushing the eggs around on the plate with her fork. "See, no matter which way you look at it, me and Abby…we're strangers. We don't really know each other. I couldn't even recognize who she was in my dreams at first. And when I first came here…she had no idea who I was, what I looked like. She didn't even know Grams had died. She never bothered to check up on me."

"Bonnie—"

"We don't know each other," Bonnie repeats, finally looking up at Caroline. "No one would make the transition for somebody they don't know…especially when you're a witch. If she's doing it for anybody, then it'd be Jamie."

She tries not to sound bitter at that. She really does. But how does one deal with the fact that their mother abandoned them and then raised someone else's child?

"Bonnie…" Caroline tries again.

"It's fine," she tells Caroline quickly with a strained smile. "When I first came here with Elena, I said that wasn't suddenly expecting to get a mom. And I'm still not. I just feel guilty that she got caught in our crossfire."

* * *

She's left alone later that afternoon when Caroline and Abby go hunting again and Jamie decides to go restock on groceries. He had invited her to go along, suggesting that maybe getting out of the house would do her good, but she really wanted to be left alone.

She's flipping through Ernestine's grimoire when there's a knock on the door. She tries to ignore it, really not wanting to be bothered, but the knocker is persistent.

She probably shouldn't be that surprised that it's Elijah again.

"I see you found my gift," he says, nodding at the grimoire in Bonnie's hands and his lips curling upwards slightly.

Bonnie openly scoffs. "Nothing's ever a  _gift_ when it comes to you all," she says scathingly. "I don't know what you want and I don't care. You can shove it."

A voice in the back of her head tells her to cool it because, even if she'd love nothing more than to stake the vampire in front of her right now, he's still an Original and since her connection with the dead witches is now broken, he could easily kill her.

Shaking her head, she moves to shut the, but he easily stops her this time.

"I don't want anything from you," Elijah tells her. "Well, I suppose that's not entirely true. But it's hardly as sinister as you'd believe. I simply want us to reach an understanding and maybe even forgiveness."

She doesn't mean to laugh aloud at that, but it escapes her before she can help it.

"I don't know if I'm more angry or surprised," she admits. "Either way, it doesn't matter. I'm not interested in reaching an  _understanding_ with you." The word 'understanding' twists in her mouth. "Now, leave.  _Please."_

He lets her close the door this time, but she has a feeling that this is far from the last she'll see of him.


	2. Chapter 2

The next time she sees him, she's working on Abby's garden to bring some life back to it. She'd removed the dead plants and bought little sprouts of flowers and herbs. After planting them, she'd do a little magical Miracle-Gro.

She's not stupid enough to think that a few plants are going to miraculously fix everything, but it had to be better than seeing Abby standing in the garden for half an hour every day, wallowing amongst the dead plants…right?

She had just fixed up some blue and white hydrangeas when a large shadow falls on her. She smiles, thinking that maybe Caroline or Abby have decided to come join her. The smiles instantly falls from her face when she lifts her head and sees it's Elijah instead.

Clenching her jaw, she looks away and goes back to focusing on the garden. Maybe, just maybe if she ignores him, he'll go away.

She's never that lucky, though.

"The garden looks lovely."

It's meant to be a compliment, but it just makes her blood boil.

"It looked better before," she says tightly. "I'm replacing all the plants that died when Abby became a vampire."

She sighs and stands up and faces him. It occurs to her just how astounding the disparity between them is. As usual, he's dressed immaculately in a suit while she's in ripped jeans and a t-shirt, covered in dirt, with her hair falling messily out of a bun. He was nearly six feet, but she's barely over five feet. He's a vampire that's over a thousand years old while she's a witch who's barely eighteen.

She spins away from him, intending to make her way to Abby's house.

"Miss. Bennett," he calls out to her.

Despite her better judgement, she pauses and turns around to face him.

"Look," she says. "I really down give a damn about what fake apology you want to push on me to make  _yourself_ feel better. I really don't. So, please, leave me alone."

"I assure you that it's not fake," he replies. "But surely, you didn't expect that I would just allow my family to die." He tucks a hand into a pocket of suit pants.

"Am I supposed to care about your family?" Bonnie scoffs. "Because I don't. It's the exact opposite, actually."

"I realize that," he says with a small smile. It just makes her angrier. "But if anyone could understand going to great lengths to keep their loved ones save, it would be you."

She hates how he can always remain so calm…especially when all she wants to do anymore is just scream and cry and break things.

"It wasn't even about your stupid family!" Bonnie snaps before she can control herself. "It was all about Klaus! About finally getting some damn peace after everything he's done to us! You and the rest just happened to be collateral."

Her heart is pounding and she's shaking. As she tries to calm herself down, she sees Elijah's pointed look. She'd fallen right into his trap and she can't help but laugh at how easily she'd allowed it to happen.

"Right," Bonnie says, her mouth twisting wryly. "Fine. So I'm hypocritical. Is that supposed to suddenly make me okay with what happened? And, really, who the hell are you to tell me I'm a hypocrite? You preach about loyalty and morality all the time when you clearly have none."

"Careful, Miss. Bennett," Elijah warns, his look hardening.

She should've stopped. She should have let it drop, told Elijah to leave, and gone back in the house. But she can tell that she's clearly hitting a nerve and she couldn't help but take some enjoyment in that. And part of her is so angry that she can't think or see straight.

"Where was your so-called loyalty when you betrayed us after the sacrifice? Your so-called morality when you used Stefan, and Damon, and your own sister to do your dirty work so you could pretend that your hands were kept clean?"

She gasps and steps back as Elijah suddenly flashes in front of her. She quickly composes herself, though, and squares her shoulders and defiantly lifts up her chin.

"Just go and leave me alone," she says slowly and carefully. "Your family can't be killed anymore, so this idea of forgiveness or understanding or whatever the hell it is you claim to want…it's pointless."

Elijah opens his mouth to say something, but Bonnie whips her head around when she hears yelling coming from the house. Without a second thought, she makes a mad dash towards it.

When she runs in, she finds Abby in the living. There's blood around her mouth and Jamie is on the floor.

"Abby," Caroline says, a firm grip on the newly turned vampire. "Abby, breathe, just breathe. This is Jamie. You don't want to hurt him, remember?"

"Oh my God," Abby whimpers, bringing a shaky hand to her mouth. "What have I done? What have I done?"

Caroline starts to respond, but pauses to stare at something behind Bonnie. Frowning, Bonnie turns to see that Elijah had followed her into the house.

"Like I was saying, whatever it is you want, don't bother. You've obviously done more than enough damage."

* * *

"Abby is calmed down and Jamie is healed and sleeping it off," Caroline says, entering the guest room she and Bonnie have been sharing. "So…you wanna tell me what freakin' Elijah was doing here?"

Bonnie sighs, sitting up in bed and running a hand through her messy hair.

"I don't know. He claims that he wants forgiveness or whatever for what happened to Abby. And this," she picks up Ernestine's grimoire off the nightstand, "Was apparently a peace offering from him."

"Do…do you believe him?"

"No. How can I after all that's happened?" Bonnie responds with a sigh. "He probably just wants something from like pretty much everyone always does. But I also have the feeling that he doesn't know how to take no for an answer."

* * *

The next morning, Caroline and Jamie join her in working on the garden. She's surprised that Caroline is voluntarily up to her elbows in dirt, but Bonnie finds herself being grateful that the blonde is the ray of sunshine she tends to be.

They had tried talking Abby into coming out with them, but she refused. Her slip up last night had shaken her quite a bit and Bonnie doesn't blame her for it.

"Hey, I'm gonna go grab us some water and check in on Abby really quick," Bonnie says, standing up. Her legs are a little stiff from her kneeling on the ground for so long and she swipes at her forehead to move some stray hair off of it, not caring that she had probably just smeared dirt on herself.

"The garden's coming along really nicely," Bonnie says when she sees Abby in the kitchen. "You should come out and at least s…" She freezes when she notices the duffle bag by Abby's feet. "What're you doing?"

The older woman pauses, lifting her hand up from the paper she'd been scribbling on.

"I can't…I can't be around here right now," the woman says, refusing to meet Bonnie's eyes. "I can't do this."

"Can't or won't?"

Abby turns to look at Bonnie this time.

"I attacked Jamie! I could have killed him!" She snaps.

"Do you think we would have let that happen?" Bonnie asks. "What do you think me and Caroline have been doing here this whole time?"

"I just…I can't," Abby repeats again. She folds the paper up and jams it in an envelope before standing up and picking her duffle bag up of the ground. "I wrote one for you and another for Jamie," she says, gesturing to two envelopes on the table. "I hope one day you can understand," she says softly.

"I still can't understand why you left the first time," Bonnie says. Her voice comes out angry and she can't help it. "So don't hold out on me being able to understand this time around, either."

Abby pauses. She looks as if she's going to say something, but she stops herself and just slings her duffle bag over her shoulder and leaves out the back door.

And Bonnie is left with a strange mixture of anger and emptiness in her.


	3. Chapter 3

Caroline wants to stay with her for a while when they get back to Mystic Falls. Bonnie's father is gone on business (as usual) and Caroline doesn't think she should be alone.

Bonnie, however, insists that Caroline has already more than gone out of her way to help her and that she'd be fine on her on. Besides, she's sure that Sheriff Forbes would actually like to see her daughter once again.

After Caroline reluctantly leaves, Bonnie's not sure what to do with herself. She ends up on her porch swing, trying to catch up on homework. Her grades have slipped along with her attendance record and if she ever wants to go to college, she should probably try to at least make a last-ditch effort to save her academics.

The night air is lukewarm and comfortable and the porch lights are dim, but soothing and adequate. It sets a nice atmosphere, but every few minutes she can't help but tear her eyes away from her physics textbook to stare down the envelope containing the letter Abby left her.

She hasn't opened it and read it yet. And honestly? She's a little afraid to. But, really, what would the letter say? It's probably just filled with the usual excuses:

' _You're better off without me.'_

' _It's for your own good.'_

' _It's better this way.'_

' _I really am sorry.'_

It's nothing she hasn't heard before by now.

She's so engrossed in her thoughts that she almost doesn't notice a weight sinking down on the other side of the porch swing.

She sighs and looks over at Elijah before looking back at her textbook, slipping the envelope in between some of the pages of her textbook. She's learned by now that there's no point in telling him to go away. Either he'd ignore her or he'd comply and just show up later.

"I wasn't expecting you back in Mystic Falls so soon," he tells her.

"Abby bailed," she replies, still not looking at him. "So there really wasn't a point in staying in North Carolina."

"I'm sorry."

He sounds sincere, but Bonnie doesn't have the energy to spend time wonder why he'd even care.

"It is what it is," she replies with a shrug. "Although, I really that that if nothing else, she'd at least stick around for Jamie."

"Jamie…your mother's ward?"

"Yeah." She pauses and slips the letter out of her textbook again. "She wrote me a letter. Like that'll somehow make me understand or make everything okay."

She throws her textbook on the ground in front of her, the tome making a heavy sound as it hits the wood of her front porch. She then gets up, running a hand through her dark hair. Then, she walks to the railing of the front porch, looking out in the darkness of her front lawn.

"But, then again, maybe I should be grateful that she could even bet bothered to leave a letter," she continues, looking down at the white envelope. "I never got any when growing up. Not even a phone call or anything. But…it's all just words," she starts ripping up the envelope and the letter with it. "Stupid, empty words. She never wanted to be a mother…or at least a mother to  _me._ She was fine raising someone else's child while never bothering to acknowledge my existence,so…" she trails off as a warm breeze ruffles her hair. She lets the shredded remains of Abby letter be picked up by the breeze and carried off into the night.

She's almost surprised to find warm tears falling down her face.

"Bonnie."

She jumps and spins around to find Elijah standing right there. She'd actually forgotten that he was there.

He reaches towards her face where her tears stained her cheeks. She jerks away and steps back, the porch railing pressing into her. He pulls back, reaching into a pocket and pulling out a small, white handkerchief and offering it to her.

With a shaky hand, Bonnie accepts it and turns away, wiping away at her tears with the scrap of cloth. When her face is dry, she turns back to him, wringing the handkerchief in her small hands.

"What do you want?" She asks, her voice a little hoarse. "Be honest. What do you really want?"

He pauses, licking his lips before answering, "You were right about me. I try to be as moral and as…noble as I can, but I abandon such things without a second thought when it conveniences me." Pause. "I do not regret saving my family, but I do regret that it came at your expense and that I did it so underhandedly. For that, I apologize."

Bonnie doesn't respond. She doesn't know if she believes him and she's still angry about the whole situation, but she doesn't have the energy to fight with him. At least not tonight.

She moves around him, settling back onto the porch swing. Elijah settles in next to her.

They pass the rest of the night in silence.

* * *

"We both have a free period now…can we talk?" Elena asks Bonnie a couple days later at school.

Bonnie knew this was coming sooner or later. She'd just kinda been hoping it would be later. Much later.

"Uh, yeah, sure," Bonnie says quietly, shutting her locker with a metallic clang.

She follows Elena into an empty classroom and shuts the door behind her. They both stand there, fidgeting and not quite sure what to say to one another.

"How…how is everything?" Elena asks, tucking some of her long brown hair behind an ear.

"Abby decided to go AWOL, so…"

"I'm sorry," Elena says, her big brown doe eyes getting watery. "I didn't mean for any of this to happen…I—"

"I don't blame you," Bonnie cuts in. Normally, she would have been over there hugging Elena tightly, but she stays where she's standing instead. "It's not like you ask for these things to happen and you went through some horrible stuff that night, too. But…" She pauses wondering if she really wants to go there and say what's been on her mind for so long. "But it doesn't change the fact that Stefan and Damon will throw  _anyone_ under the bus for you. And I get that you don't ask them to and I've kinda signed on for this, knowing and expecting just how I'm going to end up at some point. But Abby didn't."

"I know," Elena says. Her voice sounds thick and Bonnie expects the tears in the girl's eyes to start falling. "I'm sorry for all of this. I just—" she cuts herself off and runs past Bonnie, exiting the classroom.

Bonnie stands there for a few moments, heaving a deep sigh. She supposes that the conversation could have gone much worse. It could have certainly gone much better, though.

She decides to finish up her free period outside and work on some homework.

"Hey, I'm glad you're back," Matt says, sitting across from Bonnie at the picnic table she's currently occupying.

She smiles at him, but doesn't say anything.

"This is probably a really stupid question, but how are you?"

"Would it be weird if I said I don't know?"

"No," Matt says with a small, understanding smile. "I get it."

Bonnie nods, letting out a small sigh.

"Have you and Elena talked at all?"

"Yeah. Or at least we attempted to," Bonnie amends. "She kinda ran out crying. I guess she feels pretty guilty over the whole thing. I told her she shouldn't, but I didn't exactly sugarcoat the fact that Stefan and Damon don't care who gets hurt for her, either."

Matt purses his lips a little and nods.

"I don't suppose she filled you in on the whole Alaric issue, then," he says.

Frowning, Bonnie shakes her head. She'd noticed that Alaric hadn't been in school, but didn't really think too much about it. It's not like her attendance records was stellar by any stretch of the imagination.

"Uh, it turns out that he's been the one killing all those council members. Not on purpose," he adds quickly upon Bonnie's shocked and horrified look. "We think maybe dying and coming back to life has warped him and basically turned him into Jekyll and Hyde."

Bonnie bites her lips. Alaric had been using the ring for about a year and a few months and in that spend he'd died…three times? Four? Or was it more? As dismal as it seemed, she can't quite keep track…

Coming back from the dead was unnatural, so maybe this is nature trying to balance it out? Or could it be possible that something else is at work? But what?

"Look, I'm sorry. You really don't need more problems than you already have," Matt says apologetically.

"No, don't worry about it. Abby made it clear she doesn't want my help…or anyone's help for that matter. Besides, we can't exactly let Alaric go around killing people."

Sure, about ninety-nine percent of the Founders' Council consisted of snobby, elitist assholes, but they don't exactly deserve to be murdered.

"Why don't you just tell Elena that I'll look into, okay?"

Matt raises his eyebrows and is tempted to ask why Bonnie won't tell Elena herself, but wisely keeps it to himself.

* * *

 Try as she might, she can't find any information on protection rings. Emily had created them, but didn't even leave the spell behind in her grimoire.

 _Maybe she knew that something bad could happen with these rings,_ Bonnie muses.

Without truly understanding why the ring was doing this to Alaric, Bonnie doesn't quite know how to fix it. Maybe some cleansing herbs could help. They might clear his head, detox him in a sense. But that would probably only be a temporary solution.

_Like sticking a Band-Aid on a bullet hole._

She's broken out of her thoughts when her doorbell rings. At this point, she's not all that surprised it's Elijah.

She can't help but feel some embarrassment over everything she'd revealed to him a few nights ago, though. She doesn't open herself up like that to anybody…at least not to those who weren't who closest friends.

"I was wondering if perhaps I could convince you to spend the evening out with me?" he asks.

"Last time someone decided to go off with you, it didn't exactly end well," Bonnie replies dryly.

Part of her wonders if maybe she should ask Elijah about Alaric's problem. He's been around for over a thousand years, so perhaps there's a chance he has some sort of clue as to what's happening?

But could she trust him?

"Something has happened, hasn't it?" He asks, looking searchingly at her face.

Snapping back to reality, Bonnie fidgets a bit before shrugging.

"Don't worry about," she says simply.

He's quiet for a moment, looking at her thoughtfully.

"Why don't you come with me? And perhaps we can discuss your problem and I can help?" he suggests.

Bonnie stares at him, extremely hesitant.

Could she trust him?

Should she?

But, then again, he's had numerous opportunities to do her more harm since what happened with Abby. Surely, if he was going to kill or hurt her in anyway, he would have done it already?

 _Unless he wants you to trust something because he wants something from you…most likely, something involving magic,_ she argues with herself.

She takes a deep breath and steps out onto the porch.

"Don't make me regret this," Bonnie says, looking up at him.


	4. Chapter 4

"You brought me to the Falls?" Bonnie asks, looking out through the front windshield of Elijah's car.

"Would you prefer to be somewhere else?" He asks, opening up the passenger door.

Bonnie jumps slightly. He had moved so fast and so quietly that she hadn't even noticed he'd left the car.

"No, I don't really mind," Bonnie says, fumbling to unsnap her seatbelt. "I just don't get what we're doing here. You gonna take me to the top and push me off the edge?" she asks dryly.

He raises his eyebrows.

"I know, I know," she adds, stepping out of the car. "That'd be way too lame even for you."

His lips quirk upwards slightly before he shuts the passenger door and moves to the trunk, popping it open and pulling a few items out.

"A picnic?" Bonnie asks, eyeballing the objects. She's more than a little dumbfounded

"I know you must be disappointed that it's not something more horrific," is his sardonic response.

She finds her lips curling upwards a little bit at that.

He leads them out to a grassy area and spread a blanket out, gesturing for her to take a seat. He sets up a lantern, the kind usually used for camping. She figures that must be more for her benefit since he has supernatural sense and all.

She can't help but find this petty surreal and a little bit far out. In what world would she be picnicking with Elijah freaking Mikaelson at night?

"Uhm, I'm assuming you know about Alaric Saltzman's protection ring…" Bonnie begins, bringing her attention back to the reason she came along to begin with.

"Yes, I am familiar with it. It brings him back to life whenever he dies a supernatural death." As he says this, he pulls out a bottle of wine and two glasses.

"For some reason, it's been driving him crazy. He's been killing all sort of town officials. People who have been helping to cover up any vampire or supernatural-related deaths." She pauses, watching as he pours a glass of wine and offers it to her. She hesitantly takes it. "You've been around for a thousand years…have you ever heard of anything like this before?"

"No, I have not," he admits. "I believe that was a spell unique to your ancestor, Emily Bennett."

Bonnie sighs and nods. That's exactly what she had been afraid of.

"But, as you have stated, I have been around for quite some time. I own a number of texts that contain a wide array of supernatural knowledge you are welcome to them if you think it would help."

"Just like that?" Bonnie asks skeptically.

"Just like that."

"Why? What's the catch?"

"Why would there be a catch?"

"Because there always is," Bonnie replies simply. "There's always a catch."

"There isn't," Elijah reassures her.

Bonnie doesn't know how to respond to that, so she looks down at the glass of wine she has yet to drink from.

"That grimoire you gave me…it belong to Ernestine, Emily's mother. Why do you have it? How did you know her?" Bonnie asks, changing the subject.

"I have this tendency of running into Bennett witches on and off over the years," he admits. "I presume my mother already told you of Ayanna?"

"Briefly. Not very much, though. I don't really know a whole lot about the family line."

She leaves it at that, though. Her dysfunctional family and upbringing (well, more like a lack thereof) are not topics she's open discussing with just anyone.

Taking the cue, Elijah drops the matter as well.

He watches her intently and Bonnie can't help but squirm a little at that. She wishes she could tell what he's thinking, but she honestly can't.

Still, though, she can't help but feel that tonight is the beginning of  _something_ and it has her feeling like she's standing on the edge of a cliff.

* * *

Bonnie's more than a little startled when it's Damon who opens the door to Alaric's apartment.

She hasn't seen either of the Salvatore brothers since…

Stefan has wisely made himself scarce at school and she's had no reason to run into Damon until now.

"Here," she says, thrusting a jar of herbs at him. "Alaric needs to take these twice a day. Eat them, smoke them, drink them, it really doesn't matter how."

"That's it?" Damon replies with a frown.

"Right now it's the best we got until I can figure something else out," Bonnie says shortly, turning to leave.

"For what it's worth," Damon calls out, stepping out into the hallway and closing the door behind him. "What happened that night—"

"Don't," Bonnie cuts him off, spinning back around. "I don't know if you're actually going to apologize or give me some immature, snarky comment that you  _think_ is clever, but…" she tails off, taking a deep breath and licking her lips. "Look, I get that we all got back into an impossible corner that night, I really do. But I'm not going to pretend that I'm okay with it. It was unfair that Abby got caught in the crossfire."

"What? You would have rather it been you?" he asks, stepping closer to her. "You would have never transitioned. You would have let yourself die without thinking twice about it."

"I just—" Bonnie runs a frustrated hand through her hair. "I don't know what to think and I don't know how to deal with this, okay?! All I know is that no matter what I do, no matter how hard I try, I'm always the one that ends up losing. But you know what? That doesn't even matter because, as usual, there's another crisis that has to take precedence and I'm the one that has to figure it out. So, no, I'm not getting into this with you."

She turns and walks away again, the heels of her ankle boots clacking against the wooden floors of the hallway.

"I'll let you know if I find anything new about Ric's problem," she calls out without turning around.

* * *

Caroline calls a girls' night in an attempt to cheer up the abysmal state of things.

"Okay," Caroline says, looking back and forth between Bonnie and Elena. Both girls were silent and intently picking at their Chinese food. "You both are  _way_ to quiet."

Bonnie shrugs. She doesn't really have anything to say. She didn't particularly want to talk about the Abby issues or the Alaric issue or how Elijah is constantly popping up, but there's nothing else going on in her life, which is depressing on a whole other level.

Elena doesn't respond to Caroline, either.

"Ooookay, so that way I see it we got two options: We can go to  _the Grille_ where I'll compel a bartender so we can get drunk…or we could stay here and watch a movie, alcohol optional."

"Movie," Bonnie and Elena say at the same time, both of them not feeling very social.

Caroline sighs, but goes to pick out a movie.

It's doesn't escape Bonnie's notice how Caroline deliberately squishes her in the middle, forcing her next to Elena. The blonde wiggles her body into the couch in an attempt to force Bonnie even closer to Elena, but stops when Bonnie stares her down.

She almost rolls her eyes when she sees that Caroline had picked  _the Notebook_ to watch. The number of times she's forced Bonnie and Elena to sit through that movie with her…

She and Elena exchange a simultaneous look and then burst out laughing.

"I know that's at my expense, but I'm going to choose to ignore it this time," Caroline sniffs.

They turn their attention back to the movie. Bonnie stiffens a little as Elena curls into a side, draping a blanket over the two of them, but she quickly forces herself to relax. Caroline snuggles into Bonnie's other side and steals a part of the blanket even though she never really gets cold anymore.

Even though it was almost starting to feel like old times, Bonnie can't help but still feel the malcontent that seems to have permanently settled in the pit of her belly these past couple of weeks.

She remembers once hearing about something called hypervigilance. It was when you've been through so many traumatic events, that you were in a near-constant fight or flight response state. She doesn't know if it's that or something else…all she knows is that half the time she feels like crawling out of her skin anymore.

* * *

Once upon a time, Bonnie used to sleep in on Saturdays. Now she's so used to running on little to no sleep that she wakes up early without even needing to.

She had just poured the first mug of freshly made coffee when there's a knock on her door.

Taking the mug with her, she opens the front door. It's Elijah, of course. He's the only one that ever bothered to show up at her house anymore. Everyone else just texted or called her when they wanted something.

"Good morning. I hope I didn't wake you," he says with a pleasant smile.

"No, I, ah…what are you doing here?"

He lifts the ancient looking tomes she's realizes he's been holding.

"I thought you might be interested in these."

"Oh." She's suddenly very aware of the cropped yoga pants and the tank top she's wearing…along with the fact that she doesn't have a bra on. "Uh, I'm gonna go get dressed real quick. You can, uh, take a seat out there." She moves to close the door, but stops suddenly. "Do you want some coffee?"

"I would appreciate it."

She quickly fills up another mug and briefly wonders if he takes cream or sugar since she hadn't thought to ask. Knowing him, he probably took it black so that's exactly how she blindly shoves it at him before shutting the door again.

When she finally emerges onto the porch, she comes out fully dressed and presentable. She looks at him and she finds it astounding that he always remains so immaculate. She also wonders if all her owns are suits. Honestly, she could never picture him in jeans or a t-shirt.

"I can't say if you will find anything of use pertaining to the problem we discussed a few nights ago, but…" he proffers the small stack of books to her.

"This belonged to a Bennett," she says as she sets the stack down on an empty chair and picks up the top one up, opening its front cover. She briefly looks through the rest, realizing, "All of them? The all belong to my ancestors?"

"Yes. They are from the few Bennett witches I have known over the past millennia, including Ayanna's. They're yours to keep, of course, seeing as they rightfully belong in your family," he adds.

"Really? Just like that?" Bonnie asks, unable to hide her surprise.

Elijah lets out a chuckle. It's a warm sound that washes over Bonnie and it makes her want to move in closer, but retreat back inside her house at the same time. Given all that's happened, she shouldn't even be giving him the time of day.

"I seem to remember us having a similar conversation a few nights ago." Pause. "You're not very trusting, are you?"

Pursing her lips a little, Bonnie replies, "I don't have a whole lot of reason to trust  _you,_ now do I?"

"Fair enough. But you don't seem to trust anyone very much," he points out.

"I did—I do," Bonnie replies defensively. Her fingers tighten on the grimoire that she's currently holding in her hands, but she quickly loosens them, not wanting to damage the aged text. "I just…" she stops herself. "I'm not talking about this with you."

He twists the golden daylight ring he always wears as he watches her agitated demeanor, but he lets the matter drop.

She looks down at the stack of grimoires and then looks back at Elijah. Hesitantly she moves the stack of books carefully onto the ground next to the chair and perches herself on the seat, leaning forward and curling her fingers too tightly around the edges.

"Will you tell me about them?" She asks quietly. "My ancestors, the ones that you knew, I mean. Will you tell me about them?"

He gives her a small smile and nods.


	5. Chapter 5

Elijah had been right when he had warned her that there probably wouldn't be anything helpful in the grimoires he gave her pertaining to Alaric's problem. Still, though, she finds herself spending plenty of time pouring over them as if somehow she'd find some answer or missing piece to make everything better.

The one she was looking over had belonged to an ancestor named Mary. She had lived in Salem around the same time as the witch trials and when things started getting dicey, Elijah helped her escape. She and some others had ended up Mystic Falls where they ended up being burned at the stake, anyway. Mary's children (who were grown up by then) knew to get out of town fast after that.

Then, a century and a half later, thanks to Katherine, Emily ended up in Mystic Falls where she was burned at the stake. She remembers Damon once mentioning how he smuggled her children out of there. Yet, somehow, another century and a half later, here Bonnie is in Mystic Falls.

Apparently this town was like one of those stupid bug zappers lights when it came to Bennett witches. No matter how many times one of their own got killed here, others came back for more. Maybe she should take that as a sign and get out as soon as possible.

She looks over at the stack of other grimoires Elijah had given her. Each one had a fascinating and diverse history behind it.

" _Why did you keep running into Bennett witches?" Bonnie asks curiously. "Was it on purpose or…?"_

" _Sometimes it was because I was curious to see where Ayanna's line had ended up, sometimes it was pure happenstance," Elijah admitted. "Ayanna was very important to us. She was my mother's best friend and essentially a part of our family until…"_

" _Until your mother turned you into vampires?" Bonnie supplies._

" _Yes. Ayanna had been thinking much more clearly at the time and knew what my mother was creating. My mother, however, was blinded by the grief of losing my youngest brother to the wolves and didn't care what she was creating at the time."_

_Except, now a thousand years later she did, Bonnie thinks. She can't help but be at least a little bitter about it all._

The ringing of her cellphone snaps her out of her thoughts and glancing at the screen, Bonnie sees that it's Caroline calling.

She thinks about ignoring it because Caroline was undoubtedly trying to invite her to another girl's night and Bonnie has been avoiding them ever since last week's. Because, try as she might, she can't dispel the uneasy feelings she has when she's around Elena, as horrible as it sounded, and she really didn't want to dwell on them.

Despite this, she swipes the answer button on the touch screen.

"Hey, so me and Elena are heading over to  _the Grille_ tonight to hang…you in?" Caroline asks cheerfully.

Bonnie grips the phone a little tighter in her fingers. "Uh, thanks, but no. I just…I'm not really feeling up to it, to be honest."

She hears Caroline sigh on the other end.

"I thought you and Elena were okay again," the blonde says.

"We are."

"You sure about that? Because other than that night I made you both watch  _the Notebook_ last week, you've found every excuse you can to not spend any time around her," Caroline points out.

"Care—"

"I'm not trying to judge you or make you upset," Caroline interjects quickly. "It's just that…I worry about, okay? You've been isolating yourself so much lately and I know you're not the biggest fan of airing out your dirty laundry. But if you're angry at Elena or the Salvatores or the even just the world in general, you need to let it out. You can't keep everything contained."

"I'm not angry at Elena…" Bonnie replies quietly, not really knowing what to say. She's not lying when she says she's not angry at Elena. She's really not. It's just that…

 _I'm jealous of her,_ Bonnie realizes, her heart dropping right down into her stomach.  _Oh God, I'm jealous of Elena._

With that revelation, it's like a dam burst. She can feel the prickling of tears in her eyes and it feels like everything is crashing down around her.

"Care, I'm sorry. I really have to go right now." She hangs up the phone and drops it on her desk, ignoring any of Caroline's protests.

Jealous of Elena. She was jealous of Elena. As much as she hates it, she knows it's true.

Elena grew up with doting, loving parents who never would have dreamed of abandoning her.

Nobody would have ever cheated on Elena with a ghost.

Everybody always chose Elena's safety, Elena's happiness over anyone else's.

Elena has always been loved.

Nobody had ever loved Bonnie the way they love Elena.

And it's dumb. She knows it's dumb to feel this way. It's not that Elena doesn't have it hard. She has it harder than anyone should. But…Elena always had someone to pick her up when she falls. And Bonnie…Bonnie tended to be an afterthought to everyone else, even her own parents.

She tries to muffle the sobs that escape her mouth even though she knows it doesn't matter because no one else is home to hear her.

She lays on her bed and presses her face into the pillows and lets herself cry. She cries until she's out of breath and exhausted. Her face is sticky with tears, her eyes are swollen and red and puffy.

"Okay, with everything that's been going on, you  _cannot_ just hang up on me like that," Caroline says, barging into Bonnie's room. "Because that'll just really freak me o—" She breaks off when she sees Bonnie.

Bonnie scrambles up off her bed and quickly moves to the bathroom that was adjoined to her room. She splashes cold water on her face as if that'll erase all traces of her breakdown.

"Bonnie," Caroline says, rushing into the bathroom after her. Bonnie finds herself sort of wishing she had closed and locked the bathroom door behind her, but knowing Caroline, the blonde would have probably just broken the door down. "C'mon, at least talk to me."

"It's nothing," Bonnie says. "It's nothing."

Caroline sighs. "You don't have to keep it all in all the time, you know."

"Yeah, I do," Bonnie replies. She stares down at the sink, clutching the edges of the sink counter so tightly that her knuckles turn white. "Some of the things I think sometimes…" She trails off, then shakes her head as if to clear it. "Everybody expects me to keep it together. I'm always the one who has to fix everything. We don't have time for me to lose it."

"Yeah, well, you are losing it whether we have time for it or not. And that's  _okay._ No matter what anyone says, it's okay."

Bonnie doesn't reply.

"Come on," Caroline says, pulling at Bonnie's elbow. "I'll call and cancel on Elena and we can binge on Ben & Jerry's and watch movies or I'll build us the most elaborate blanket fort you've ever seen and never come out or something."

Bonnie gives a small smile before taking a deep breath and nodding. Then, she allows Caroline to drag her out of the bathroom.

* * *

A few nights later, her head is pounding and she blames it on the God-awful pre-calculus that she's attempting to study for.

Groaning, Bonnie gets up and heads into her bathroom, only to discover she's completely out of ibuprofen. And there's none in her dad's room or anywhere else in the house, for that matter.

 _How do you just run out of it?_ Bonnie wonders, irritated.  _That's one of the things you should never run out of._

Looking over at the alarm clock on her bedside table, she sees that it's almost ten o'clock. The local drug store was closed by now.

It was one of the many downsides to living in such a small town—there were no large chain stores that stayed open late or were open 24/7.

Normally, she would have gone ahead and made some homeopathic remedy she learned from Emily's grimoire that worked wonders, but she didn't have the proper herbs for it. Those herbs, among others, had gone towards Alaric's detoxing regime…and they still didn't know if it was even working.

She lets out a loud sigh.

Would it be worth it to head about twenty-five minutes or so out of town to the nearest Walgreens?

The insistent throbbing in her head is screaming yes.

With a sigh, she grabs her purse and her keys and heads downstairs and out the front door.

About ten minutes later, she reaches the town line when a figure suddenly steps into the path of her car.

Out of reflect more than anything, she lets out a shriek and swerves sharply to the left. When her car goes past the other lane, off the road, and hits a tree head-on, the impact dazes her and the sound of breaking glass and crunching metal is deafening.

Gasping, she urges herself to move and she does so very, very slowly, unsnapping her seatbelt. Before she can do anything else, someone wrenches her door open and pulls her out, roughly throwing her on the ground. She cries out in pain.

"You've seen firsthand the horrible things they do—they've done it to you—and you still side with them?" A voice hisses. "You're an embarrassment to your own kind."

"Ric?" she whispers, staring up at the figure that's standing over her.

She urges herself to move, to do something, but it's like she's moving in slow motion. Everything hurt.

"You're just going to keep siding with the vampires and let them continue to hurt others," he continues.

She feels her stomach drop out when he sees that he's holding a stake in his hand.

Taking a deep breath (even that hurt), she tries to focus her magic. Because, as much pain as she's in and even if this is Alaric, she's not going to lay there and let him kill her without a hell of a fight.

"Step away from her," a voice calls out.

_Elijah._

"Original," Ric snarls.

"Oh, good, you remember me. That saves me the trouble of having to tell you that you really can't do anything to me with that splinter in your hand," he says loftily. "And since there's no question that I could literally tear you apart, limb from limb in a matter of seconds…"

Ric lets out another snarl, but apparently even with his Jekyll and Hyde split-personality, he knew when he was beaten. He took off without another word.

Bonnie groans and tries to sit up, but a firm hand keeps her down.

"Careful, you could have broken something," Elijah advises her gently.

"How…were you following me?" Bonnie asks breathlessly?

"No," Elijah replies, his lips quirking wryly. "I heard the crash and came to see what happened."

She jerks slightly when he feels his hand pressing down on her arm.

"What're you doing?"

"Checking for broken bones."

"There's none," Bonnie says. She remembers that time when she was six and she fell of the top of the slide during recess and broke her wrist. And while she was sore and ached all over and definitely covered in scrapes and bruises, she knew there was no broken bones. "I know what a broken bone feels like."

She sits up with a groan. Then, she looks over at her Prius which now half-resembles a sardine can.

"It's gonna be fun explaining this one to my dad," she mutters.

"I can heal you," Elijah offers.

"No," she says quickly and sharply. "I…" she doesn't want to explain to him how, ever since Abby's transition, she's been terrified of taking any vampire blood to heal herself because she doesn't want to die with it in her system.

He accepts her response and helps her stand up. She's a little shaky, but she thinks she can manage.

"Then, we should get you to a hospital," he advises. "That way we can make sure there's nothing more than scrapes and bruises…you probably have a concussion, as well."

"No," she protests. "People would know, my dad would find out and I really don't want to have to come up with an explanation." In retrospect, she'll find this response dumb because she was going to have to come up with some sort of explanation as to how her car was totaled. "I'll be fine," she continues. "I'm just gonna get myself home."

She pushes away from him and starts to walk as best she can. A wave of nausea hits her, making her stop.

"At least let me get you home," Elijah says, coming to her side and steadying her.

She thinks about protesting that as well. She doesn't want to rely on him at all. And, honestly, she can't help but a feel a bit embarrassed about it all. She's a witch, a damn powerful witch and she knows what nightmares exist in real life. She should have let this startle her to the point where she crashed her car.

Still, though, home was at least three and a half miles away and she's not so sure she can make it there on her own.

"Okay," Bonnie finally says, taking a deep breath and nodding.

"Close your eyes," he advises her.

Almost snorting, she does so. She already felt nauseous enough when moving, she doesn't even want to think about how seeing the world blur around at an impossible speed would do. Her embarrassment would be taken to a whole new level if she threw up on Elijah.

Cool air whooshes around her and it actually feels kind of nice. When it stops, she opens her eyes again and she's on her front porch. He carefully sets her down.

"I got blood on your shirt," she says softly, when she sees some small, red stains on the once pristine, white fabric.

"I've got others."

She snorts at that. "Yeah, I bet you've got this ginormous walk-in closet filled with more suits, button-ups, and ties than anyone could ever possibly need," she says dryly. Her fingers come up to touch one of the bloodstains.

"I own a few other things," he replies with a wry grin.

"I'll believe it when I see it," she says with a small laugh.

She finds herself with the sudden, inexplicable urge to lean in closer to him and…

And that's how she knows she must have a concussion. She's not the girl who throws herself at any man her shows her some attention…not to mention that this is  _Elijah._ Just because he's shown her some kindness, doesn't erase the fact that he is frighteningly diabolical when he puts his mind to it.

 _But aren't we all?_ Asks this little voice inside her head.

"I'm gonna have a serious talk with Damon," she grumbles, pulling away. "He was supposed to be babysitting Alaric so that this sort of thing didn't happen."

She turns away to go inside her home.

"You shouldn't stay alone. Just in case you do have a concussion," he tells her.

"I'll give Caroline a call to come over," she replies. "Uh, thanks for your help tonight," she adds awkwardly. She goes to enter her home, but a firm grip on her shoulders stop her.

"I am waiting with you until your friend arrives," he tells her, guiding her to the porch swing. His tone tells her he's not taking no for an answer and she wants to groan. She honestly hadn't been planning on calling Caroline. She wants to avoid having to explain this to as many people as possible.

With a sigh, she fishes her phone out of her pocket. The screen is slightly cracked, but she can't even bring herself to care all that much.

"Hey, I really need you to come over and spend the night…I'll explain when you get here," Bonnie tells Caroline when she answers her phone. "Oh, and if you have ibuprofen or even something stronger, I will love your forever if you bring it."

She probably shouldn't have added that last part because, knowing Caroline, the blonde is imagining the worst and driving like a maniac to get here.

"Y'know, I didn't need you to come save me," she tells Elijah, watching as he took a seat next to her.

"I know," he replies. "I just happened to be around."

"Not that I don't appreciate it," she adds.

"You're not used to anyone helping you." He says it as a statement instead of a question.

"My friends help me when they can…it's just I'm almost always capable of taking care of myself," she replies a little defensively.

He lets out a little hum but doesn't respond to that.

"You know, you seem so sure that you can figure out everything about me," Bonnie says, frowning. "And, yeah, you've been around for a long time, so you're probably  _really_ good at reading people, but that doesn't mean you know everything about them."

"No, it doesn't," he agrees. "But I am trying to know you better."

For some reason, that makes Bonnie feel a little flustered and she opens her mouth to say something—what, she doesn't know—but Caroline's car speeding down the street saves her from doing so.

"What the hell happened?" Caroline gasps as she sees Bonnie's appearance.

"It's a long story," Bonnie says wearily, "And I promise I'll tell you all about it inside."

Looking a little slack-jawed, Caroline eyed Elijah and then looks at Bonnie who was moving towards the front door.

"Goodnight, Elijah," Bonnie says.

"Goodnight, Miss. Bennett."

"Bonnie. Call me, Bonnie," she tells him before she even really thinks about it.

"Goodnight, Bonnie," he says with a small smile. And then he's gone.

"What. The. Hell."

"C'mon," Bonnie says, gesturing towards her house. "Like, I said, it's a long story. And for the love of all that is good, please tell me you brought me something that's gonna kill this pain."

* * *

Bonnie Bennett fascinates him. There's no denying that.

He thinks maybe it's because she reminds him of himself. Like him, she tries to keep most of herself reserved and under the surface so that very few people knew what to make of her. But she's young and she lets the façade drop sometimes.

There's both a fire and a fragility in her that makes him want to know every bit of her.

"Why is Bonnie Bennett's blood on your clothes?" Klaus asks Elijah with raised eyebrows.

Unbuttoning his shirt, he glances over at Klaus who was standing in the doorway of his bedroom. He'd be lying if he said he didn't find it disquieting that he had bothered to remember what Bonnie's blood smells like.

"She has a bit of an accident tonight and I merely offered her my assistance," Elijah replies simply.

"Are you honestly trying to ingratiate yourself with the little witch?" Klaus says with a laugh. "Tell me, is she actually falling for your charms after everything that happened?"

Elijah doesn't respond.

"Then again, she could be useful…"

Turning to face Klaus fully, Elijah stares him down.

"Let me make myself very clear, Niklaus. You will leave Bonnie Bennett alone."


	6. Chapter 6

"So you've obviously had a rough night," Caroline begins once they're both safely inside the house. "But, seriously, I need an explanation."

"I was heading to the Walgreens the next town over because I had a killer headache and nothing to help for it. Alaric in all his Jekyll and Hyde craziness caused me to crash…Elijah happened to be around and helped me out."

Okay, so that's oversimplifying things  _a lot_ , but in all honesty Bonnie just doesn't have the energy to try and explain it all.

"What I saw out there was a lot more than a good Samaritan offering some help," Caroline replies, eyebrows raised.

"Because he's an Original and the phrase good Samaritan doesn't belong in a sentence when talking about an Original," Bonnie replies, his lips twisting wryly.

"Bonnie, I know how he showed up at Abby's house and you mentioned he was trying to make amends or whatever…"

"Yeah, and he's been showing up since then," Bonnie finally admits with a sigh. "I thought that, being a thousand years old and all, he might know something about Ric's problem."

Caroline hums, but doesn't say anything, which is very unlike her.

Truth be told, Bonnie had been expecting a lecture about how she should be staying far, far away from Elijah, that she shouldn't accept his help or  _anything_ from him.

That's exactly what she keeps telling herself.

"That's it?" Bonnie asks. "No lecture?"

"Well, historically, you make much better decisions than the rest of us, so…" she trails off. "And I know you're a badass witch and all, but it is a relief that someone was looking out for you tonight," Caroline says. "But given who he is, his family…just be careful, please."

Bonnie nods.

"I'm gonna head to bed. I'm  _exhausted,_ " Bonnie tells Caroline.

"Wait, here, take some blood so you can heal up," Caroline says. The veins underneath her eyes become more prominent and her fangs descend. She brings her wrist up to her mouth to bite into the delicate skin there, but Bonnie stops her.

"Don't bother," Bonnie replies, shaking her head. "It's just a few scrapes and bruises. They can heal on their own just fine."

"Okay, but you probably have a concussion, too…or worse!"

"That's why I asked you to stay the night," Bonnie replies, expression adamant. "If something bad happens or whatever, then I'll take some blood."

Caroline bites her lip and tries to decide whether she should argue with Bonnie on this or not. Sure, it doesn't look like she's seriously hurt, but brain injuries had a tendency to be so sneaky…

"C'mon, let's head to bed," Bonnie says.

Caroline sighs and follows her.

* * *

When she calls to report the accident the next day, the operator thinks she's playing a prank because there's no wreckage left. To say it left Bonnie baffled was an understatement.

Then, when she tries to call Damon to chew him out for not watching Alaric, he can't be bothered to pick up his cellphone.

Luckily, though, her scrapes and bruises are easily covered with clothing and makeup. When Elena asks her why she's getting a ride to school with Caroline, Bonnie shrugs it off and says that her car is in the shop, getting some work done. She's not sure what to really say.

She doesn't miss the pointed looks from Caroline throughout the day. She knows that the blonde expects her to say  _something_ about what happened with Alaric, but Bonnie doesn't see the point. It would only pointlessly worry everyone because it's not like they could really do anything about it at the moment.

Bonnie's pretty sure that the only reason Caroline doesn't say anything about it herself, though, is because she's actually making an effort to talk to Elena again.

"Uh…is that your car?" Caroline asks later that afternoon when she pulls up Bonnie's drive way.

"No way," Bonnie says, staring at the definitely intact white Prius. "My car was totaled, trust me."

She scrambles out of the car and approached the Prius. Her license plates were on it and everything. As she circles to the front, she notices a small envelop tucked under the windshield wiper with her name written on top in a neat, cursive script. She pulls it out and opens it. A set of two keys fall into her palm. She frees the small card from the envelope and carefully reads it.

_Bonnie,_

_I took the liberty of having the wreckage cleared from the road. This Prius is the same make and model as your previous one. I believe I may know the cause of your friend's affliction and will inform you about it once I know more._

_Yours,_

_E_

Caroline takes the card from Bonnie's hands, blue eyes quickly scanning over it.

 _This is ridiculous,_ Bonnie thinks, a little wide-eyed.  _He is ridiculous._

Still, though, she can't help but be at least a little appreciative. It saved her the trouble of eventually having to explain everything to everyone…especially her father.

"Bonnie," Caroline says, passing the card back to her. "I know you said you'd asked for Elijah's help about Ric's problem, but are you sure something  _else_ isn't going on?"

"What?" Bonnie asks, confused at first till it hits her as to what Caroline is actually implying. "No. God, no. No way."

"Well, one thing I can tell you is that no guy goes through all this trouble," Caroline replies, gesturing towards the Prius, "Unless he's trying to impress a girl."

"Don't be ridiculous," Bonnie says, moving to head inside her house.

"I'm not the one being ridiculous here," Caroline insists. "C'mon, think about it, Bon! Back at Abby's house he gave you a grimoire that belonged to one of your ancestors. He went out of his way to play knight in shining armor last night when everyone knows you could have laid Alaric out flat on his ass like that," she snaps her fingers. "And now this."

Biting her lip, Bonnie thinks about all the things Caroline doesn't know; the picnic, the other grimoires, the stories he'd told her about her ancestors…

Was Caroline reading too much into this or was she herself just being obtuse?

Honestly, when she thought about it, she could never come up with a good explanation as to why Elijah has been so good to her lately. And if it was an attempt at romance…no. There was no way it could have been. No one like him goes for someone like her.

 _Unless he wants something from you…_ says a little voice in her head.

"Look, I'm not saying you need to jump his bones or whatever," Caroline continues. "But it's okay to enjoy it, maybe even use it to your advantage."

"That's not—" Bonnie begins, feeling her face heat up, but she cuts herself off. "Trust me, it's nothing," she says instead and just leaves it at that.

* * *

Later that evening, Bonnie stands out on her front porch, staring at her Prius, the thoughts whirling inside her head.

She wished she had Elijah's number so that she could call him—whether it was to thank him or tell him he was ridiculous, she didn't know. Probably both.

She still can't get ahold of Damon, either, to ask him why the hell he hadn't kept a better eye on Ric. He's probably just avoiding her…the coward.

She's so lost in her thoughts that she become startled and lets out a small cry when someone is suddenly standing right next to her.

"Finn?" Bonnie breathes, green eyes wide. He had disappeared with Esther following her failed ritual that fateful night.

"I apologize for the intrusion, Miss. Bennett, but it is imperative that you come with me," he tells her quickly, his eyes beseeching her and urgency clearly etched in his expression.

Before she can reply, there's a resounding  _crack_ that echoes and a thump as Finn falls to her porch in a large heap. Bonnie gasps and jumps back.

"Well, this saves me a bit of trouble," Klaus says with a grin. "Killing two birds with one stone and all that."

"Look, whatever is going on, I don't care," Bonnie says backing away. "I don't want any part of it, so leave me out of it."

If she could just get back inside her house, she'd be safe. Klaus wouldn't be able to reach her there.

"Hm. The way I see it you have two options: You can refuse me, in which case something awful will befall Jeremy Gilbert and your dear mother—and don't worry, love, I have proof if you need it… _or_ you could help me out and then go home safe and sound, no one getting hurt."

* * *

Elijah grips his steering wheel tightly as he speeds past Richmond's city limits.

The previous night's events with Alaric Saltzman had kept him thinking and then it occurred to him: This happened around the same time his mother had resurrected.

Perhaps it was simply a strange coincidence. Those did happen every now and then. However, in this particular instance, he's hard-pressed to even  _think_ about considering that.

Now that Esther no longer had access to the Bennett line, her magic would be weakened…but whatever influence she held over Saltzman was clearly anything but weak.

Not wanting to get Bonnie involved until he was sure that he is correct in his assumptions, Elijah had contacted an old witch acquaintance in Richmond to perform a locator spell for him. Thus, he found himself a couple of hours out of Richmond, into the Virginian wilderness at a small cabin.

Without thinking twice about it, he exits his car and swift approaches the cabin, knocking on the door.

"Hello, mother," he says when the door opens and Esther's face peeks through.

* * *

Bonnie jumps as she hears a scream emanate from the other side of the mansion.

"What the hell was that?" Bonnie asks, feeling all the muscles in her body tighten up.

"Don't let it bother you," Klaus replies flippantly. He doesn't move from his position, leaning against the door way and observing her.

"Don't let it bother me?" Bonnie repeats incredulously. " _You_ bother me."

He pretends to act wounded by her words, only serving to great her nerves even further.

She turns back to Esther's grimoire, reading over the words.

"I don't think I have enough power to undo the linking spell."

"Oh, come now," Klaus says, pushing off the doorway to move closer to her. "Don't sell yourself short, Bonnie. You've proven time and time again that you're not one to be underestimated."

Bonnie knows that any protests she has don't matter. He'd kill Abby and Jeremy as if it were nothing…and it  _was_ nothing to him. And even if the spell was too much for her? Well, that was nothing to him as well.

"I need your blood. And your siblings' blood," Bonnie says finally, her expression tightening into one of resignation.

"Not a problem," Klaus replies. He moves across the room to a round, wooden table, opening up a leather pouch and showing her the multiple vials of blood. He lists off which belongs to who, as if she really cares to know. Then he grabs an elaborate wine glass and bites into his skin. She winces at the squishing sound that his made as his fangs break through his flesh before blood starts streaming into the glass.

She can't help her heart sinking straight into her stomach. He had Elijah's blood and she couldn't help but wonder if Klaus had somehow taken it by force or if Elijah had willingly gave it to him for this very purpose.

 _If he did, what could you have expected, though?_ She asks herself.  _Of course he'd take the opportunity to save himself and his family over the well-being of some eighteen year old girl he's known for like two seconds in comparison._

Taking a deep breath, Bonnie pours each sample of blood into the middle of the table, creating one large pool, and then she mutters a quick spell to light the candles that had been set up around the table. She closes her eyes as she begins the spell, wanting to block out the image Klaus intently watching at her.

The spell wasn't too much for her. It didn't even give her a nosebleed. It did leave her feeling weary and even more disillusioned with her life, though.

Opening her eyes, she sees the blood had separated into five distinctly separate pools.

"There," Bonnie says emotionlessly. "Can I go now?"

"Certainly," Klaus replies. He places a hand on her shoulder to guide her out of the room. She tries to shrug it off, but his grip remains firm.

When they reach the foyer, they're stopped by Rebekah.

"Everything sorted out?" The blonde asks, cleaning her hands with a small towel. Bonnie's stomach churns as she realizes that Rebekah's hands are covered in blood.

"Yes, we're no longer bound to one another," Klaus replies. "Did you have fun with your toy?"

"Oh, it was  _very_ cathartic," Rebekah tells him with a grin. "See you in Physics, Bonnie." She winks and strides away, her heels clacking against the marble floors.

"Oh my God…" Bonnie whispers at the sight in front of her.

Damon Salvatore was hanging from the ceiling, animal traps cutting into his wrists. Some of his skin dangled like ribbons. She could see bone, muscle, ligaments, the yellow of fat tissue.

"My sister can be quite the monster when you make her angry," Klaus comments, leaning down closer so that she could speak directly into her ear. "Go on and free him if you'd like."

"Are we really gonna stand here and pretend like you'd actually let me?" Bonnie shoots back, inching away from him a bit.

"Why would you want to help him? He turned your mother into a vampire, after all…then again, it was Elijah who orchestrated that whole event, wasn't it?"

"I don't get off on other people's pain you like you do," Bonnie replies flatly, ignoring that last comment.

"Maybe you should learn to," he suggests. "Trust me when I tell you that nothing makes you feel more powerful, more vindicated when you have the ones that have wronged you screaming in agony."

Bonnie turns to stare at him and shakes her head in disgust. "Go to hell."

He simply shrugs and takes Bonnie by the arm, leading her to the massive front door.

Once she's outside, Bonnie reaches for her cellphone with shaky hands. She hits the speed dial for Elena's number.

"Hey, what's up?" Elena asks.

"Klaus," Bonnie chokes out. "He made me undo the spell that bound him and all the other Originals together. He threatened Jeremy and Abby. He has Damon and…God, it's really bad, Elena."

"Bonnie, where are you right now?" Elena asks.

"I…" Bonnie shakes her head even though Elena can't see it. "Damon's at Klaus's mansion. I have to go." She hangs up the phone despite Elena's protests.

Bonnie stands there for a moment in the driveway, taking deep breaths and trying to control all her thoughts and emotions. She can't afford to break down. Not here. She squares her shoulders and begins to walk home.

* * *

"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that you found me here. You always were a clever one, Elijah" Esther says. "Now what is it that brings you here?"

"What exactly have you done to Alaric Saltzman?" Elijah asks, cutting to the chase. Pleasantries, even those that were forced and false, would be wasted on her.

"I have no idea what you are talking about," she replies flippantly.

"Oh, but we both know you do. Don't play dumb, mother. You are many things, but not that."

"I helped him. Simply gave him the push he needed to unlock the hunter inside of him."

"And yet, he's been killing humans simply for covering up vampire attacks."

"Yes, that is unfortunate," Esther responds. "However, if I am to end this plague that I mistakenly created, then sacrifices  _must_  be made."

"This plague you keep referring to are your own children. And lest you forget, everything we are is owed to you and father."

"We've been through this already, Elijah," Esther replies calmly. "My mind will not be changed. Enjoy whatever time you have left on this earth." She shuts the door.

His lips thin out in anger. He reaches out and when his hand is not an inch away from the wooden door of the cabin, he feels the skin of his palm burning. She had just erected a magical barrier to protect herself. Even without the Bennett line, his mother was clearly still a formidable foe.

No matter. Even if he could get inside, even if he could burn the house down and force her out (or even if he could burn it down with her in it), he doubts it would help Saltzman at this point. Not to mention, he and his siblings were still magically linked and Finn was, without a doubt, still set on playing sacrificial lamb.

He could try to find Finn, plead his case…or he could simply ask Bonnie if she'd be willing to unlink them all.

Then, there was the matter of  _what_ Esther planned on using to kill them. Was there some way besides a white oak stake?

 _Or perhaps we didn't destroy all of the white oak trees like we thought we did a thousand years ago, there may have been a small sapling we never noticed,_ he muses. Odds were that was the most likely explanation. And that meant Saltzman was on a hunt for that tree…or whatever was left of it.

He needed to get back to Mystic Falls immediately.

* * *

As she lays her exhausted body down to sleep that night, Bonnie wonders about what happened. She wonders if they ever got Damon out of there, why Finn had come to her in the first place.

Klaus had probably daggered him and he'd be lucky if he ever saw that light of day again.

 _I don't care about any of it, though,_ Bonnie decides,  _I won't. I don't want anything to do with any of this stuff anymore._

With a sigh, she closes her eyes, pulls her blankets up higher and tries to sleep.

"What happened here?" Elijah demands to know when he sees the blood that stains the once pristine marble floors.

"Damon Salvatore slighted Rebekah in some way or the other," Klaus replies. "And we all know how she can get…"

Elijah hums, but doesn't respond. Instead, he tells Klaus, "I spoke with mother today."

"In that case, please tell me you brought back her head as a gift," Klaus says with raised eyebrows.

"Not quite. But I have learned what she has been up to," Elijah responds, his lips twisting wryly. "Apparently she has been the one twisting Alaric Saltzman's mind. I also believe that there may be another white oak tree in existence and that she plans on using Finn to kill us through the link she created."

"Finn shouldn't be an issue anymore. I was generous enough to reunite him with his dear Sage. However, Stefan and Damon had found the white oak and had made several stakes out of it. Stefan traded them for Damon's life, but Saltzman apparently managed to get  _two_ of them in his possession, so that will be a problem," Klaus explains. "One thing that will not be, though, is the link mother created. I took care of it and it's gone."

Despite all the information Klaus has just thrown on him, Elijah finds his mind honing in on one particular bit.

"And how, pray tell, did you have that link ended?" Elijah questions suspiciously.

"How do you think, Elijah? I coerced the Bennett witch into doing it."

"I distinctly remember telling you to leave her be. Was I in any unclear, Niklaus?" Elijah asks calmly, leveling Klaus with a stare and idly twisting his golden daylight ring around his finger. His demeanor was just like the misleading calm right before a huge storm hit and devastated everything within its path.

"Oh, come on, Elijah, it was for the good of us all and you know it."

Klaus goes flying through a pillar, marble raining down.

"Do not," Elijah says, stripping off his suit jacket and rolling up the sleeves of his button down. "Do not pretend that your own interests weren't at the very forefront of your mind."

"And why do you have a sudden interest in her?" Klaus asks, picking himself up off the floor. "Some pathetic, misguided guilt for what  _you_  had Stefan and Damon do to her mother? Then again, you always held a special place in your heart for the fragile ones…I bet you just couldn't help herself after seeing her all sad and lonely."

A fist flies out, breaking Klaus's jaw. Klaus responds by sending Elijah sailing across the room.

* * *

Rebekah comes home to an absolute mess.

Walls and pillars were broken, marble floors cracked. The wire railing on the spiral staircase was even bent horribly out of shape and broken in some places.

"What the bloody…" Rebekah mutters.

She finds Elijah and Nik in the living room, both glaring at each other and holding a stiff drink.

"What the hell happened here?" Rebekah demands to know.

"We had a slight disagreement," Klaus says dryly. "Our dear big brother here apparently has a soft spot for the little witch and didn't appreciate me having her help us…even though it was to save us all."

Rebekah finds her eyebrows raising.

"And I had given Niklaus very clear instructions to leave her alone. Not only did he disregard that, he further alienated a very powerful witch who could have been a great ally against our mother."

 _Our mother? Where does she come into all this?_ Rebekah wonders confused. However, before she can inquire further, Klaus is laughing.

"Ah, yes, and I also ruined your chances of bedding her as well," he says dryly.

That comment ends with him having to pull shards of what was once Elijah's glass from his face.

As Elijah leaves the room, Rebekah turns to Klaus, more confused than ever.

"What the hell am I missing?"

* * *

A knock on the front door jerks Bonnie awake. Looking at the clock, she sees that it's just the wee hours of the morning.

Throwing on a zip up sweater, she sleepily ambles downstairs to cautiously crack the door open.

It's Elijah. Of course.

"It's really late…or early, technically. I guess," she amends. "What do you want?"

"I know what Niklaus did to you—" he began.

"Don't bother," Bonnie cuts him off. "I'm really not in the mood to listen to any of it right now."

"You believe I had something to do with it," Elijah states, stepping back and looking at her as if he's trying to read her.

"Do I have a reason not to? Wouldn't be the first time you pulled a fast one on me. Or the second for that matter."

And, boy, didn't that leave her feeling like a fool.

Eyebrows raised he replies,"No, of course you have  _no_ reason to believe me. I could have simply orchestrated this all  _weeks_ ago with almost no effort, but I thought giving you some family heirlooms and offering you my assistance multiple times added a nice touch.

Bonnie's eyes narrow. "You know what? Whatever. I really don't care. I'm over it. All of it. I don't want anything to do with any of you anymore."

She shuts the door, ignoring the ache in her chest.


	7. Chapter 7

The next morning, Bonnie lays in bed with absolutely no intent to get up and do anything…even if there was school.

She ignores three calls from Caroline and one before Elena before she decides to listen to the single message Caroline left.

" _Hey, so I get that you're probably keeping a low profile and want to be left alone today," Caroline says with a sigh. "But I thought that you should be filled in about everything going on. Stefan and Damon had found some white oak wood and had made stakes to kill Klaus with…I guess Rebekah found out. Stefan had to trade them in to save Damon's life last night. And I know this is a lot to hear from a voicemail, but you deserve to know just in case. I'll check in on you after school, okay?"_

Bonnie pulls the phone away from her ear to stare at it bewilderedly.

White oak? How long had they known about this? Literally no one thought to mention it to her till now?

"Hey," Elena says, cautiously poking her head through Bonnie's bedroom door. Bonnie jumps a little; she hadn't heard Elena come in the house. "I don't know if you're planning on going to school today or…"

"I'm not."

"Oh." The brunette flounders in the doorway, indecision clearly etched on her face. She then edges her way into the room, before tentatively perching on herself on the edge of Bonnie's bed.

"I'm sorry I didn't check up on you last night," Elena says. Her eyes widen and Bonnie realizes that the bruises and scratches from her car accident weren't covered up.

"That wasn't from Klaus," Bonnie admits. "It was from something else that isn't important right now. And I know you were busy last night. Damon was in danger. And I'm sure Stefan put himself in danger to go rescue him last night. And they're both important to you."

"Bonnie," Elena protests. "It's not like that."

"Yeah, it is. Maybe you don't mean for it to be, but it is."

Elena opens her mouth to protest again, but Bonnie cuts her off.

"Why didn't you tell me about the white oak stakes?" Bonnie asks, her eyes piercing into Elena.

"I was going to. I meant to, but—"

"But you got caught up in yet another Stefan-Damon crisis," Bonnie finishes.

"So what is it that you want me to do?" Elena asks, a cross between frustration and desperation edging into her voice.

Bonnie shrugs. "Nothing," she mutters. "It doesn't really matter anyway."

"You know you don't make it easy to be there for you either," Elena shoots back.

Bonnie's jaw tightens, but she doesn't respond.

"You're always shutting everyone out. You shut me out when I tried to be there for you after what happened to Abby and I get why you did, but…just when it seemed like you were letting me back in, you shut me out again! You shut me out after Grams died, after you and Jeremy broke up, when you had the power of a hundred witches you never told me that it would kill you, you won't even give me a straight answer as to why you're all banged up!" She gestures at all the cuts on bruises on Bonnie. "You don't tell anybody anything! You always keep it all to yourself! And then God forbid anybody makes a mistake around you. You'll judge us and hold it over our heads till the end of time! You always assume the worst from everyone!"

Bonnie throws off her blankets and stands up, agitated now. "It's been made abundantly clear time and time again that my feelings don't matter," Bonnie snaps. "I told you how I felt about Stefan and Damon after Grams died and then  _you_ started keeping things from me until you decided that you needed my help. I can't talk to you about what happened between me and Jeremy because then I'd be the bitch for badmouthing him in front of his sister. Abby abandoned me when I was a child to save  _you._ She got turned into a vampire for  _your_ sake, to save  _your_ life. But if I let it show how angry I am, how bitter I am about literally  _everything_ , then I'm a judgmental bitch and a horrible person for it. I'm supposed to be okay with everything that I lose for  _you._ I don't get to be hurt or angry because I'm expected to fix  _everything._ I'm expected to give and give until there's nothing left and even then I'm still expected to find something more."

They both spend several moments glaring at each other, before Elena looks down and sighs.

"So what now?" Elena asks quietly. "Where do we go from here?"

"I don't know," Bonnie replies, slowly sitting back down on the bed across from Elena.

The silence that descends upon the two girls is deafening.

* * *

The next day, Bonnie spends her free period in a deep dark corner of the library where nobody should be able to find her. Somehow Rebekah does, though.

"Just so you know Elijah has been unbearable and if he and Klaus get into another fight, I'm not going to have a roof over my head anymore," Rebekah informs her.

"Yeah, I have no idea what you're talking about," Bonnie tells her blankly.

"Elijah had nothing to do with Klaus making you unlink us."

"What does any of this matter to you?" Bonnie asks. "It's not like you actually give a damn about me. Besides, you're acting as if there was something between me and Elijah."

"There isn't?" Rebekah asks, clearly surprised.

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"How could I not be sure?"

Rebekah shrugs and says, "He doesn't get that angry over nothing."

* * *

When Bonnie goes home, there's a card wedged in between her screen door. She instantly knows that it must be from Elijah. Hands shaking a little, she pulls it out of the envelope.

_Bonnie,_

_Please consider joining me for this evening at seven p.m. so that we can at least discuss things._

_Yours,_

_E_

She sighs and looks up, nervously tapping the card against her knuckles before shaking her head and entering her house.

He arrives promptly at her house at seven just like she knew he would. She ignores the knock on her door and tries to quell all the thoughts racing through her brain.

An hour later when that doesn't work, she just decides to head to bed super early. As she approaches the stairs, she sees through the front window that Elijah's car is still in her driveway.

Cautiously, she opens the front door and pokes her head out. Elijah is sitting there on her porch swing.

"What're you still doing here?" She asks him before she can stop herself.

"Waiting until you decide that you're ready to listen to me. I can be a very patient man."

Her fingers grip her doorway tightly, knuckles turning white. She's turned the issue over in her head a million times and isn't sure what to think.

If Elijah's endgame had been to allow Klaus to force us to end Esther's linking spell, what would have been the point in everything else he has done for her? Unless it was all meant to be some sort of sick mind game…

All the things Elena had told her earlier come to mind.

" _You're always shutting everyone out."_

" _You always keep it all to yourself."_

" _You always assume the worst from everyone."_

"They're your family and you'd do anything to protect them," Bonnie says. "I get that. I don't think they deserve it. Or at least Klaus doesn't. But I get it."

She steps outside and carefully shuts the door before going to sit down next to him. She ignores the flutter in her heart as he gives her a small smile.

"I don't know what to think," Bonnie replies honestly. "Earlier today someone told me that I always expect the worst from everyone. And it's true. I do. And I think I have every reason to. It's become a form of self-preservation for me," Bonnie says. "But I'm also starting to think that maybe it could keep me from living my life." Pause. "Anyway, in the note you left me yesterday, you'd mentioned that you had an idea of what was happening with Alaric. Did you find anything?"

Expression becoming solemn, Elijah begins to explain.

* * *

The next night, Friday, Elijah insists on taking her out to dinner.

" _You don't have to buy me off, you know," she tells him._

" _I'm a little offended that you think something as simple as dinner is so nefarious," he says dryly, grinning._

" _Are you making fun of me?"_

" _Oh, I wouldn't dare dream of it."_

_Bonnie snorts. "Fine. You win," she says with a soft smile._

She smoothed out the lacey green peplum dress she had worn for the occasion and wonders if she's reading into things too much. She'd told both Caroline and Rebekah that nothing was happening between her and Elijah, but…

She's not used to guys trying to impress her, but she isn't completely obtuse, either. Or maybe she is. She's not sure.

Deep down, she'd be lying if she says she doesn't like the attention. It feels nice. But she can think of a million plus one reasons not to go there.

 _And you're probably gonna make a fool out of yourself by reading too much into this,_ Bonnie tells herself, shaking her head.

She begins to pull her dark hair back into a loose bun, letting some curls frame her heart-shaped face, doing her best to push all those thoughts out of her head.

As she's sliding her feet into a pair of sleek black pumps that give her a nice height boost, the doorbell rings. Taking a deep breath and pushing down whatever nervousness she feels, Bonnie begins to carefully head down the stairs.

She opens up the door, revealing a smiling Elijah.

"For you," he says, handing her a bouquet of flowers.

"Oh, thank you," Bonnie says, blinking in surprise and accepting them. "I'll go put them in water really quickly." She hopes she doesn't look and sound as flustered as she feels.

They weren't the traditional roses that one might expect. No, instead they were wildflowers, bright and beautiful and commanding attention.

She finishes putting the flowers in a vase before grabbing her black clutch and heading out the door, securely locking it behind her.

The car ride is silent, but despite Bonnie's uncertainty, it's not an uncomfortable or awkward silence. She thinks about asking where they were going, but she decides not to. Tonight, she'll just go with the flow.

The restaurant they arrive at is styled like an old Italian villa and the beauty of it takes her breath away. A valet opens her door for her and helps her out of the car. Then, Elijah hands off his keys and offers his arm to Bonnie. With some hesitation, she loops her arm through his.

"This is all, uh…really elegant," Bonnie comments, looking around.

There was a huge fountain in the courtyard outside, the water pouring from it making small splashing sounds. She's sure it's a replica of some famous fountain in Rome that she doesn't recognize.

"If it's not to your liking, I'll happily take you somewhere else," he offers."

"No, no, I don't mind," Bonnie says quickly. "It's nice…but I'm just not used to this sort of thing."

Once they're seated, each with a glass of wine in front of them, Bonnie, not knowing what else to do, decides to fall back on business.

"You know, I keep thinking about this whole thing with Esther and Alaric and one thing keeps really bugging me: She's not dumb enough to honestly believe that one man, one  _human_ man, can actually take on  _all_  of you and live."

"She wasn't planning on him having to actually put up a fight against  _all_ of us…or even put up a fight at all," Elijah replies. "I believe that he was to get the white oak from your friends and then Finn was to sacrifice himself. We were linked together through magic, so if he died we all would have perished with him."

"I guess that explains why Finn had come looking for me before Klaus forced me to undo the link…And now I guess Klaus has him daggered with no intentions of ever letting him out again, so Esther is either gonna come looking for him or come up with a contingency plan."

"Finn isn't daggered," Elijah corrects her and Bonnie can't help the surprise that washes over her. "Niklaus reunited him with a long lost love from when he, when all of us were still human. I suppose he took a certain enjoyment in having Finn turn away from our mother's plan."

Bonnie, unable to help her curiosity, finds herself wanting to ask more about it, but instead she just says, "Okay, so she's going to have to come up with some sort of contingency plan then." She resists the urge to pinch the bridge of her nose. "Maybe the best thing to do for now would be to find Alaric and just keep him somewhere where she can't get him until we find a way to deal with her."

"Be truthful," Elijah says, his voice suddenly taking on a strange tone and his brown eyes piercing into her green. "Are you truly willing to go up against my mother? Her plan would bring an end to all of this, including Niklaus. Is that not something you desire?"

"Look, I know he's your brother and I know you care for him. And I don't know, I guess maybe at one point he wasn't a complete asshole or a lunatic, but I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I don't wish him dead or at the very least somewhere far, far away that I'd never have to see or hear from him again," Bonnie replies honestly. "But Esther…she uses people. She used me, she used Abby, she used my entire ancestral line. And now she's using Alaric. He doesn't deserve what's happened to him and those innocent people he killed because of it didn't deserve it, either."

Silence falls upon them.

"This…this is gonna be nightmarishly difficult, isn't it?" Bonnie asks, breaking the silence.

"Yes, it is. Even without access to your ancestral line, she still appears to be quite a formidable foe."

Bonnie sighs, not knowing what else to say.

They don't talk about Alaric or Esther again for the rest of dinner.

Instead, Elijah regales her with tales of the past. He tells her about the places he's been, the many historical figures he once knew. And Bonnie finds herself hanging onto every word, fascinated by all his experiences.

As they exit the restaurant, waiting for the valet to pull up with Elijah's car, Bonnie finds herself shivering in the chilly night air. The cardigan she had pulled on before leaving was thin and had mostly meant to cover up the remaining bruises and scratches from her car accident, rather than provide her protection from the outdoors. She really wishes she had thought to bring something a little more suitable to cover up with.

She jerks a little, startled when Elijah wraps his suit jacket around her shoulders.

"Oh, you don't have to…" Bonnie begins, feeling her face heating up slightly.

"I don't get cold," Elijah explains to her.

"Oh. Well, thank you," she says, pulling the jacket a little tighter around her body. He was much bigger than her, so the fabric easily engulfs her body. "Thank you for tonight. With everything that's been going on…I never really get a whole lot of time where I can actually enjoy myself, so thank you."

"You're welcome," he replies, reaching out to brush a wayward curl out of her face. His fingers trail along the smooth skin of her cheek.

"What is this?" Bonnie finds herself murmuring. His fingers made her skin tingle. "What is this between us?"

"If you're asking me that, then perhaps I have been too subtle," Elijah replies, his fingers move from across her jawline to trace down the curve of her neck.

He leans in closer to her and Bonnie knows he's going to kiss her. His movements are slow and deliberate, giving her more than enough time to pull away or stop him.

She doesn't, though.

Her heart flutters in anticipation and her hands come up to curl around his biceps. Then, as their lips touch, she presses herself closer to him.

Before they can deepen the kiss, though, she's hit with a sudden vision. She recognizes the alleyway behind the backdoor of  _the Mystic Grille,_ but everything was so chaotic. There's screaming and fire, but she can't really make much out except for one particular person.

With a gasp, Bonnie pulls away from Elijah.

"I…I just had a vision," Bonnie breathes, eyes wide. She's still clinging to Elijah. "I saw…I think your brother, Finn, is in trouble."

* * *

Bonnie clenches her firsts tightly, nails digging into her palms as Elijah speeds back to Mystic Falls.

Alaric was going to try and kill Finn…if he hasn't already, that is. And if by some miracle succeeds, she's not sure that anyone would be able to save Ric from the Originals' wrath.

Her heart sinks straight down to her stomach when they finally get there, only to be left to witness the aftermath.

There is no trace of Alaric at all. Instead, there's a burnt, smoldering body and redheaded woman on the steps, sobbing. Bonnie assumes that she must be that long-lost love Elijah had mentioned earlier.

The woman looks up at Bonnie and makes a lunging motion, but Elijah quickly steps in front of her.

"You," she shrieks. "You're with them. You're with those sons of bitches who were looking for the white oak to begin with!"

"She had nothing to do with this, Sage," Elijah says calmly.

Sage falters for a moment, her expression tight before it crumples again. Then, she disappears into the night without another word.

Inhaling sharply, Bonnie looks up at Elijah, unsure of what to say to him.

He wordlessly makes his way down the steps, pausing when he reaches Finn's body. He looks down at it for a few moments, before hefting it up into his arms.

The silence that falls upon them in the car is heavy and Bonnie's stomach is twisted in knots to the point where she thinks she might actually be sick.

When they arrive at the Mikaelson mansion, she can't help the sense of foreboding she feels. She shouldn't be here. After what has just happened…

Yet, she goes inside anyway. And just as Rebekah had told her the previous day, the mansion was partially in ruins.

Bonnie can't help the way her breath hitches a little as she remembers that this was the result of Elijah's anger because of what Klaus has done to her.

She feels a strange sense of calmness in knowing that he would protect. If he had blamed her for Finn's death in anyway, he wouldn't have stopped Sage from harming her in the first place. In fact, he probably would have ended her right then and there.

She ends up alone in Elijah's room while he presumably takes care of Finn's body and shares the news with his other siblings.

The room is very…Elijah. It was spotless with not a single thing out of place. There were paintings on the wall, many of which she was sure were very old and very expensive, if not priceless. A bookshelf is stocked with books, all of them appearing to be first edition copies. Any furniture was made of dark wood and looked hand-carved.

She jumps a little when the door opens and Elijah enters. He quietly closes the door behind him, face somber.

"I'm so sorry," Bonnie says sincerely, not sure what else to say.

"Finn…becoming a vampire broke him," Elijah tells her, his voice sounding hollow. I think it was losing his connection to being a witch.

Bonnie blinks in surprise. It makes sense to her, though. Esther is a powerful witch, so it at least one of her children must have inherited her abilities.

"The many failed suicide attempts and what we perceived to be judgmental posturing caused Niklaus to keep him in his coffin for a majority of a millennia. And just when it seems he found a reason to want to live…"

Bonnie swallows heavily. From what she had seen, there had been no love lost between Finn on the other Mikaelson siblings, but she only got the briefest of snapshots into their world. The five of them still had a history together and were still family…an unbelievably fucked up family, but still a family, nevertheless.

"I…" Bonnie trails off. "I should go, so that you and everyone else can do…whatever it is you need to do tonight."

She moves to leave, but his long fingers wrap gently around her wrist, stalling her.

For whatever reason he can't seem to make the words come out, but she can see the silent plea in his face.

_Stay._

So she does.


	8. Chapter 8

She had been so sure there was no way she'd be able to fall asleep and she doesn't remember dozing off, but she finds herself waking up in Elijah's bed, still wrapped up in his suit jacket. Sitting up, she spots him standing at the window. He's wearing the same clothes as yesterday, the sleeves of his white shirt rolled up and his eyes contemplatively gaze out the window.

She hadn't actually planned on staying the whole night, yet at the same time it didn't feel right to just leave him. She slowly slides off the bed and stands there for a few moments, unsure of what to do.

"Uh, sorry," Bonnie says awkwardly, shrugging of the suit jacket. The undoubtedly expensive fabric was crumpled and wrinkled beyond belief by now. "I hope I didn't ruin it."

"It's fine. Keep it for now," he replies, finally turning away from the window to face her. "It's cold out."

"Thanks," she says quietly. She wraps the jacket back around her body, clutching at the lapels like a child clutches at a safety blanket.

"I apologize for keeping you out all night," he says, twisting his daylight ring around his middle finger. She's noticed that it was a habit of his whenever he was in deep thought.

"Well, special circumstances and all…"

 _God, that's a lame way of putting it,_ she berates herself. _His brother just_ _ **died.**_

As they exit his room, Bonnie spots Rebekah at the end of the hallway, observing them with mild interest. Given that she was in last night's clothes, her hair and makeup a disaster, Bonnie knows what it must have looked like.

Rebekah gives her a hard look before retreating into her own room and Bonnie recognizes it not as a threat, but as a warning.

She settles into Elijah's car and doesn't know what to say, so she stays silent. By the time he pulls up to her home, though, she tries to find the words.

"I know how angry, and upset, and hurt you must be," Bonnie says carefully, unsnapping her seatbelt and turning to face him. "And I understand. Really, I do. But…Alaric isn't himself right now. You _know_ that. This is on your mother, not him."

He doesn't respond or look at her.

Taking a deep breath, she pulls one of his hands off the steering wheel, entwining her fingers with his. With her free hand, she reaches over and cups his cheek, turning his head to face her. Then, she just sits there like that for a moment.

"I promise I'll help you find a way to stop your mother," she tells him sincerely.

She knows making those sorts of promises are dangerous. They're the kind of promises she's made to her friends time and time again and look where it's landed her.

Still, though, Esther was becoming a danger to everyone. Plenty of innocent people had died because of what she did to Alaric and if Bonnie had the power to do something about that, she had a duty to.

Glancing towards her front porch, she sees Caroline standing there, looking on and clearly worried.

When she looks back at Elijah, he squeezes her fingers softly once before letting go. She hopes that's a sign that he'll focus his anger on Esther and not Alaric, but she's too afraid to ask.

She slides out of the car and slowly makes her way to meet Caroline on the front porch.

"Hey," Bonnie says hesitantly.

"I was really worried about you, but…" Caroline says. She looks Bonnie up and down from head to toe, her blonde eyebrows skyrocketing upwards.

"It's a really, _really_ long story, Bonnie says, entering her house. "Finn, Elijah's older brother, is dead and Ric killed him."

"Yeah," Caroline sighs. "We found that out when his girlfriend—Sage, or whatever her name was—came to kick Stefan and Damon's ass. She knew they were looking for oak, so she figured they had something to do with it, even though they didn't—it's not like they have a grudge against Finn like they do with Klaus and since they're unlinked, they're would have been no point in trying to take out out Finn…by the way, why couldn't you be bothered to pick up your phone or at the very least check your texts?

"I'm sorry, okay?" Bonnie says, sitting at the kitchen table and rubbing ha hand across her forehead. "I had it on silent and then I didn't even think about checking it after…" She pauses with a sigh. "Elijah and I had found Finn right after he had been killed…"

"Oh…" Caroline says, her voice dropping down lower. "Well…not to make things even more complicated, but…Sage and some lackey she had sired both literally dropped dead a few hours after Finn died."

"What?"

"Yeah, it looks like if you kill an Original, their entire line dies with them."

Bonnie blinks. Esther's vendetta wasn't _just_ about her children. She was literally trying to wipe out the existence of every vampire ever.

"It's not Alaric doing all this, either," Bonnie tells Caroline. "It's Esther. She using him as a puppet and pulling all the strings. And I know, I know, I should have said something sooner, but everything has just been happening so fast and I was with Elijah all of last night…"

"You really like him, don't you? Elijah, I mean," Caroline says, looking at Bonnie intently.

Bonnie leans back in surprise a little bit…not because Caroline noticed. But given the seriousness of the situation…

"Does that really matter right now?"

"Yeah," Caroline replies. "It's important because it's important to you. I saw the way you were looking at him in the car…"

Bonnie sits in silence for a few moments, choosing her next words carefully. "Yeah, I do care about him. I mean, it's not love or anything and given everything that's happened, the whole thing with Abby, I really shouldn't, but I do care about him."

The more she thinks about it, the more she realizes how she's spent these past few weeks—months, really—bemoaning how no one, beyond Caroline and Matt, seemed to give her a second thought. Yet, there had been Elijah. Giving her small gifts, like pieces of her heritage that meant more to her than most people would realize, he had listened to her, helped her. Granted, it had originally been out of some sense of guilt, but if last night—at least before it had gone to hell—had shown her anything, it was that it had become something more for him, too.

And despite their past history, despite all odds, she really has become attached to him, has come to care for him.

It both terrified and exhilarated her to the very bone.

Caroline nods. "You know it's not going to be easy, right?"

"Is anything in our lives ever?" Bonnie replied wryly. "And if I'm being honest, all this—Elijah, Ric, everything that's happening—terrifies me…but some things you just can't help, you know?"

_This must be how Elena feels when it comes to Stefan and Damon._

The thought comes unbidden to her, but it hits her like a freight train.

"I gotta go," Bonnie says suddenly, standing up. "I need to talk to Elena."

"What?"

"Well, actually I need to clean myself up first," she says, racing up the stairs on nearly tripping in her high heels, not caring if Caroline thought she was crazy.

"Uh…okay. There's just one thing I seriously need to ask," Caroline yells up from the bottom of the stairs. "Did you finally drop your V-card last night? Because if so, I'm going to seriously need all the details. I bet it was really good, too. Elijah seems like a perfectionist."

"Not that it's really any of your business," Bonnie yells back, her face flushing, "But no."

* * *

She's almost hesitant to knock on the door, given how explosive her last encounter with Elena had been, but she knows this is something she needs to do.

"Jeremy?" Bonnie says in surprise when he opens up the front door. "You're supposed to be in Denver."

"Yeah, well, apparently having me compelled out of town wasn't as safe as Elena thought," Jeremy tells her dryly.

She remembers how Klaus had Kol trailing Jeremy for leverage, ready to hurt or kill him at a moment's notice.

"I'm glad you're okay," Bonnie says sincerely with a soft smile.

She tries not to feel awkward, but she can't help it. There's still a lot of unaired drama between the two of them and Bonnie still isn't quite ready to get into it…actually, she'd prefer to let sleeping dogs lie forever on this one.

"Bonnie—"

"I actually need to talk to Elena," she cuts in, pushing past him to enter the house. She didn't mean to sound brusque, but it came out that way. "She in her room?"

"You're still angry at me?" He asked, his brow furrowing as he shuts the door and turns to face her.

"I don't know," Bonnie replies honestly. "I really don't want to talk about this now, okay?"

"Fine. Then when?"

"How about never?" Those words slip from her lips before she can stop them.

He scoffs a little in disbelief. "Bon, we have to talk about this."

"You cheated on me with the ghost of your ex-girlfriend…I'm not sure what there is to say?"

"Uh, hey…" Elena interjects cautiously, coming down the stairs.

"Hey," Bonnie says quickly. "I need to talk to you." She grabs Elena by the wrist and practically drags her back upstairs.

"Okay…"

"Alright, so what I'm about to tell you is going to make me seem crazy and hypocritical, especially after the last conversation we had…but I figured if anyone would get it, it's you because you make really crappy decisions when it comes to who you decide to care about…"

"Thanks," Elena says sarcastically, dropping down onto her bed.

"Okay, I'm sorry. That was a bitchy comment. I just…" she stops herself and takes a deep breath. Then, she tells Elena everything that had happened with Elijah, starting with the first time he had visited her at Abby's house.

"Woah," is all Elena can say once Bonnie is finished.

"Yeah."

"Uh. Wow. I don't know what to say," Elena tells her. "I just…I always thought you and Jeremy would find your way back to each other once the dust settled."

"I'm being unfair to Jeremy," Bonnie says with a sigh, dropping down next to Elena. "I know I am. I mean, I'm still angry over what happened with Anna, but…how can cheating really rank compared to the things Elijah had done in the past? After what happened with Abby?"

"Trust me, I learned a long time ago that some feelings you just can't help…as much as you want to," Elena says sympathetically.

Elena would be lying if she says she doesn't find the teeniest amount of pleasure in Bonnie falling for the wrong guy. If Bonnie who had always seemed to have so much more control over herself than the average person could fall for an _Original_ …well, it just makes her feel better about her own predicament with Stefan and Damon, as horrible as that sounded.

"God, I'm being ridiculous right now, anyway," Bonnie groans. "There's way more important things going on, like figuring out this whole situation with Ric and Esther."

"Esther?" Elena asks questioning, her brow furrowing.

"Yeah, apparently she's the one who's been doing all this to Ric," Bonnie replies. "I think she started warping his mind on the Other Side…"

"I guess that makes sense," Elena replies. She leans back a little, placing her palms flat on the bed for support. "She talked Vicki into trying to kill me a couple of months ago and we know Esther's already tried to kill her children once…wait, she knew about all the vampires in a sire line dying with their Original, doesn't she? She wants all vampires gone?"

Bonnie nods.

"And Ric…Ric already killed Finn. The Originals aren't going to take that lying down. They're going to want to kill him!"

"I talked to Elijah, reminded him that it wasn't _really_ Ric's fault, but…" she pauses. "I don't know. He doesn't really seem angry he just seems…sad. I guess Finn had been suicidal ever since they became vampires and just when it seemed he finally turned a corner…"

Silence.

"I don't even know if what Esther did to Alaric can be reversed, either," Bonnie admits. "I'm not trying to scare you. I'm going to do everything I can, but…"

"But I should prepare myself just in case," Elena finishes for her, looking down.

"Yeah," Bonnie says softly.

* * *

A week later, she hasn't heard from Elijah and she's still agonizing over how to deal with Esther and Ric. Right now, she was choosing to try and focus on Esther and Ric.

Killing Esther wouldn't help matters. She'd been able to get to Ric from beyond the grave, so there's no way that would break the effect she had on him. The detox herbs clearly weren't having an effect on him, either (if he had even been taking them in the first place).

 _Maybe we should call in a priest to perform an exorcism,_ she thinks wryly.

She stops her pacing when she hears the blearing ring of her cellphone. It's Caroline calling.

"Hey, Care, what's up?" Bonnie asks.

"Well, I know things have been hectic for you, so I got you a dress for tomorrow night's decade dance," her friend informed her.

Bonnie could only vaguely remember hearing about the decade dance—something about how it had been switched from the 1970s to the 1920s—but Bonnie hadn't really been paying that much attention. She had more important things to think about.

"I'm not going," Bonnie says, "Sorry."

"What do you mean you're not going?" Caroline demands to know. "I get that things are pretty bleak right now…but that's why we need to seize those little opportunities for fun."

"You do remember that literally no town function or school dance ends well for us, right?" Bonnie points out.

"Bon, if it's a day that ends in a 'y', things go horribly wrong for us," Caroline shoots back.

 _Point,_ Bonnie thinks with a sigh.

"You're just going to keep nagging at me until I agree to go, aren't you?"

"Well, duh. It is _me_ after all."

Bonnie sighs again.

Taking that as a sign of begrudging acceptance, Caroline tells her, "I'm going to stop by to drop of your dress right now!"

* * *

The next morning, Bonnie is rapping a heavy knocker against the massive doors of the Mikaelson mansion and saying a silent prayer that it was Elijah who would answer the door and not one of his other siblings.

She breathes a sigh of relief when it is indeed Elijah.

"I've been drawing a complete blank about what to do," Bonnie admits. "And then I remembered, that you guys had Esther's grimoire, so maybe there's something in there?"

The grimoire in question had been in Klaus's possession last time she saw it—it had contained the linking spell he had forced Bonnie to undo, after all—and Bonnie isn't sure if Elijah would be able to get ahold of it, but she'd much rather ask him than Klaus.

He seats her in the living room before leaving to go get the ancient book. She tries not to fidget.

There were some persistent questions whirling around through her head, but none of them felt quite right to ask.

_Have you and your psychotic siblings decided whether or not they're going to hunt down my friend who's being forced to play Jekyll and Hyde against his will?_

_So we kinda kissed before your brother got killed by my friend who is unfortunately brainwashed by your crazy mother…wanna talk about that?_

Yeah, none of those seemed appropriate at the moment.

She jumps slightly when Elijah is suddenly by her side again, placing the extremely weathered grimoire down in front of her.

Instead of diving right into it, she looks up at Elijah and asks, "How…how have things been since…?"

"Kol has decided to flee in self-preservation, Klaus wants to hunt down Saltzman and our mother and tear them limb from limb, and Rebekah has decided to consume herself with your school dance tonight."

"What about _you?_ " Bonnie asks softly.

"We spent the better part of a thousand years on the run from our father. Just when we thought it was finally over, there's a threat just as dangerous. Then, losing Finn just when we got him back again...it's exhausting."

"I'm sorry." She knows that that's not much of a consolation, but she doesn't know what more there is to say. Wanting to do something other than sit in silence, she begins to focus on the ancient grimoire in front of her, carefully turning the aged pages.

Some of it was in Latin, which Bonnie could recognize and translate. Other pages were in Runes, which she couldn't even begin take a guess at.

"Could you…" she gestures to a page.

"Of course," Elijah says sitting next to her. His arm brushes against hers as he reaches out to touch a page, his finger trailing along the words. "This is a curse that would cause the Bubonic plague to descend upon an entire household or village," he explains.

Bonnie's eyebrows shoot up. "Uh…this obviously goes without saying, given what's been going on, but your mother is into some seriously dark and twisted stuff."

Elijah lets out a wry chuckle at that.

They continue through the grimoire, but there was nothing of use. Bonnie sighs frustratedly, pinching the bridge of her nose. Elijah gets up to pour them both a drink.

She takes it from him, their fingers brushing. Taking a tentative sip, she discovers that it was scotch. It was the expensive kind, too, the one that Grams had like to drink and would occasionally let her sneak a sip or two of.

_Grams…_

It's like a lightbulb goes off in Bonnie's head.

"A few months ago, I lowered the veil to the Other Side," Bonnie says suddenly, snapping her fingers. "I mean, it ended up being a total disaster since, unsurprisingly, there's _a lot_ of angry supernatural spirits here in Mystic Falls. Still, though, Grams had been able to help me then…maybe if I could somehow talk to her without lowering the veil…"

Elijah looks at her thoughtfully, his mind getting on the same track as hers.

"I need to get to the old witches' house," Bonnie says, scrambling off the couch and rushing to the front door.

Elijah easily follows her.

"Uh…you might want to stay outside," she suggests once they reach their destination. "I'm not sure how much of a punch they pack here anymore after…well, obviously they're not going to be that happy with you."

She can see that he debates it for a moment or two before deciding it would be more respectful of him to wait outside instead of angering a hundred dead witches any further. He hovers outside the front door while she slips inside.

It unnerved her how eerily silent it was in the house. In the past, she could always hear the witches murmuring, she could feel their power humming in the air. Now, it was like they had completely abandoned the place.

 _And maybe they have…_ Bonnie thinks. She desperately hopes that wasn't true, though. Truthfully, she doesn't even know what she's doing. She just wishes that lighting some candles and hoping really hard and feeling around with her magic would bring her _something._

After a few tense moments of nothing, Bonnie finds herself pleading.

"Please, Grams. I really need you…I don't know what else to do."

"I distinctly remember telling you to stay out of Original business, child," a stern voice says from behind her.

Whirling around, Bonnie comes face to face with Grams.

"You're here." Grams presence doesn't instantly soothe all her fears and worries, but it helps a lot.

"You needed me," Grams replies simply.

"Yeah…Esther, she's—"

"I already know," the older woman interrupts. "And my advice is the same. Stay out of it. You only stand to get hurt even more."

Bonnie's heart sinks straight into her stomach.

"I can't," Bonnie whispers. "If I don't find a way to stop her, Caroline could die. So would Abby, and Tyler, and so many people who don't deserve this. A lot of people have already died and they didn't even have anything to do with all this."

On the surface, Grams' expression appears to be emotionless and blank. However, Bonnie knows from experience that she's carefully deliberating, deciding what the best course of action would be.

"You already know what Esther's next plan is, Bonnie. _Think._ What is the only thing that stands a chance against an Original?"

It was so like Grams. She never gave Bonnie the answers straight up, always making her work for them. She begins to protest, wanting to tell Grams that there were wasn't time for this, but the answer hits her suddenly.

They had found Mikael to eradicate Klaus because they had no other options. Mikael had been the only one, besides Esther, any of the Originals had ever been scared of.

"Another Original," Bonnie murmurs. "Only an Original is strong enough to take on another Original…she's going to use that spell to turn Alaric." Her eyes widen in horror.

Grams strides over to Bonnie and takes her by the hands. Bonnie jumps a little and pulls away, surprised at how corporeal Grams was even though the Veil was still technically up.

"When this is all over, you are _done_ with this business, do you hear me?" Grams says sternly.

Bonnie feels so tiny in that moment, like she's five again and got caught with her hand in the cookie jar before dinner.

"I can't promise that Grams. What if…"

"No. They'll find a way to stand on their own. Sometimes the best thing you can do is to let someone figure it out on their own," she tells her granddaughter. "You have the power to do extraordinary things and a big heart to match it, but your life is worth so much more than you've been valuing it at. I know I didn't teach you to think so little of your own life."

Her eye suddenly prickle and she finds herself blinking unshed tears. She knows there was truth in what Grams was saying, but…was that a promise she could really make?

"I'll try," she whispers. "I'll try not to give so much of myself away."

It's not quite the promise Grams is looking for, but she seems to accept it for now. She squeezes Bonnie's hands lightly and then she's gone.

Bonnie takes a few minutes to collect herself before heading back out to meet Elijah.

"How much of that did you hear?" She asks him, her eyelids fluttering a bit as she tries to re-adjust to the bright light outside. She doesn't know if the spirits had allowed him to eavesdrop or not.

"All of it."

"So Esther's going to use the spell that turned you and your family and use it on Alaric…"

"I suppose it does takes a monster to defeat another monster."

"You're not a monster," Bonnie says automatically before she even really thinks about it. "I mean, I know you've done monstrous things before, some of them I've seen firsthand, but it was always for your family." Pause. "Or if you are a monster, then I guess we all are. There's not a lot I wouldn't do for my friends and we've left a lot of collateral damage in our wake."

It was funny because not so long ago, she had honestly believed the exact opposite. She remembers that afternoon in Abby's garden when Elijah had pointed out that they weren't so different, after all. She hadn't believed it then, but now…

"She's going to use Elena as a blood sacrifice for the spell," he tells Bonnie, bringing their focus back to the problem at hand.

"How do you know?"

"Elena's ancestor, Tatia—the first doppelgänger—was the blood sacrifice when my mother turned my siblings and I. I doubt she'll be able to resist the poetic symmetry of it all."

"Would it kill Elena?" Bonnie asks, not so sure she wants to know. When it came it magic, blood sacrifice could mean a million different things from death to simply a drop of blood and God knows what else.

"Her death wouldn't be necessary, but my mother isn't known for her restraint. Although, it wasn't the spell that killed had Tatia."

Bonnie has a feeling that there's so much more to that story, but she can tell from his demeanor that it's not up for discussion and it's not her business to pry. If it was important to solving their problem, he would have told her.

"The decade dance tonight…I think she'll try to get to Elena there," Bonnie says, wondering how she's going to tell the brunette that she's become a target yet _again._ "It'd be easier, at any rate."

"Then, we'll just have to prepared," Elijah replies, a gleam in his eyes.

Bonnie can't help but smile a bit. It seems like they were finally getting one leg up.


	9. Chapter 9

She does her best to remain calm and collected as she prepares herself for the dance. She even dug out Grams' old Billie Holiday records to put her in the mood.

Granted, it was supposed to be a twenties decade dance and Billie was more active in the thirties, but she always found her music so comforting. It brought her back to days when she was little, spending the long weeks her father was out on business with Grams. Her dad never really liked her spending time with Grams because of all the 'witch nonsense', but it's not like he had a lot of options with Abby having left.

Grams would put the old records on and hum along while she cooked dinner or helped Bonnie get ready for school.

After seeing Grams again today, Bonnie found these memories flooding back full force. She can't help but wonder how different things might have been if Grams had been alive through everything that's happened since.

She lets out a sigh and tries to push those thoughts from her head. As she painstakingly sets her pin curls, she finds herself singing along with _You're My Thrill._

She had already given Elena a call to give her a warning. The doe-eyed brunette had asked if maybe it would be better to just avoid the dance altogether. Bonnie had thought it would seem too suspicious—they didn't want to tip Esther off and lose any surprise advantage they had.

If Esther showed up, they would work to take her out—permanently. They would then take Alaric, isolate him, and Bonnie would try a combination of herbs and magic to bring him back to himself. They would have to take away his protection ring as well. Once Esther was dead, she would be back on the Other Side and they couldn't afford her being able to get to Ric again.

When Bonnie finally finishes with her hair and makeup, she moves to get dressed. The dress Caroline had gotten for her really was beautiful. It was in the style of what flappers had worn and black with delicate, silver beading.

On cue, as always, her doorbell rang just as she slipped on a pair of Mary Janes and wound a long string of pearls around her neck.

"You look lovely," Elijah compliments when she opens the door.

"You were around in the twenties…do I look authentic enough?" She asks with a small smile.

"You would have captivated an entire speakeasy with your beauty and enchanting voice."

She feels her face heat up when she realizes that Elijah must have overheard her singing along with Grams's old records. And truth be told, the compliment was a little cheesy, but it didn't change the fact that there were at least a billion butterflies fluttering around in her stomach right now.

"We should get going," was all she manages to tell him.

They weren't actually going to the dance together. That would make things way too obvious (and, in all honesty, it would have been absurd for him to be attending a high school dance). No, instead, he would be observing around the outside of the school for any signs of Esther, or Alaric, or anything else suspicious while remaining out of sight until necessary.

He stops about a block away from the school and turns to face her.

"You're prepared for this?" He asks.

"Yeah," she replies with a nod. "I'm so ready for this to finally be over."

He smiles at her and squeezes her fingers lightly before letting go.

When she reaches the school and enters the gym, the party is already in full swing. Upbeat jazz fills the room and while some students make an attempt to actually dance to the beat, most gyrate against each other while harried chaperones attempted to separate them before finally giving up.

"Hey," Elena greets her, hanging on Stefan's arm. "I almost chickened out," she admits.

"It's going to be okay." She says this not just for Elena's benefit, but for her own. "It'll all be over after tonight."

 _As long as everything goes according to plan…and does it ever?_ Asks a little nagging voice in the back of her mind.

"I hope so," Elena sighs.

"Okay," Caroline says, coming up to them in a flurry of blonde curls and red flapper dress. "I was super pissed about Rebekah changing the theme, but this did turn out pretty nice…but if any of you blab that and it gets back to her, I'll deny it and kill you."

Bonnie, Elena, and Stefan exchange looks, trying to hold back a laugh.

"Okay," Bonnie says, taking Caroline by the arm. "You're the one who kept saying that we needed to have some fun, so let's go." She quickly pulls the blonde to the dancefloor.

She does have fun, even while she's mentally preparing for what would basically be a battle. And it's impossible not to smile and be happy for Caroline when Tyler shows up to literally sweep the vampire off her feet.

"Dance with me?" Jeremy asks when she's standing on the sidelines during a slow song.

"Oh, I…"

"Just one. Then I'll leave you alone for the rest of the night, I swear," he promises her.

"Okay," she says hesitantly, reaching out to take his proffered hand. Once they make their way to the dance floor, she carefully puts her hands on his shoulders, but makes a point to keep at least a few inches of distance between their bodies.

"I'm sorry. About Anna, Vicki, all of it," he says after a few moments of silence. "I know I should have apologized much, _much_ sooner, but…"

Bonnie doesn't respond. She doesn't know what to say.

"Is there any chance of you giving us another try again?"

"Jeremy," Bonnie says slowly, carefully choosing her next words. "A lot of things have changed since… _I've_ changed," she tells him. "I'm sorry," she says, not knowing what else to say.

Thankfully, the song comes to an end then and Bonnie chooses that moment to slip outside into the hallway.

Once again, she can't help but feel a little guilty…like she's being unfair to Jeremy. At the same time, though, it had been true when she said things have changed. It wouldn't be fair of her to lead him on and let him think there was still a chance for them, either. Not when she knows there isn't.

She's broken out of her thoughts when she hears moaning coming from one of the classrooms.

"Hello?" She asks, slowly stepping closer. She really hopes it's just someone who drank too much spiked punch and not a couple of students getting frisky…or something much more violent and worse that she doesn't even want to think about.

"Stefan? Damon?" Bonnie gasps when she finds the vampires in question only half-conscious and crumpled on the floor in Ric's classroom.

"Crazy bitch took Elena," Damon groans, obviously trying to regain his bearings.

Bonnie's heart plummets straight down to her stomach.

_We were here the whole time! I was ready! How did this happen right under my nose?_

Her only hope now is that maybe Elijah had caught them by surprise.

She wastes no time, scrambling up and racing outside. Stefan and Damon could fend for themselves. Elena couldn't.

When she finally bursts through the doors of the school, there's no trace of Elena. A few students who had been loitering about look at her curiously, but then go back to their business.

She finds nothing. No trace of Elena, Alaric, Elijah… _anybody._

"Shit," she mutters," pulling her cellphone out of her bra. "Shit, shit, shit." She punches Elijah's name to call him.

He's not picking up his phone, but she can hear a faint ring in the distance. And, not being much of a believer in coincidences these days, she knows it must be his.

She follows the sound, redialing his number again. Then, she trips over a body.

Elijah's body, more accurately.

She pulls herself to her knees, willing everything inside of her to try and stay as calm as possible.

It looks as if Elijah had been daggered…only, there was no dagger.

 _Dessicated,_ Bonnie realizes. _Esther must have desiccated him like Abby did to Mikael._

Heart sinking, she realizes they'd just got played. Esther must have banked on them figuring it out. She'd probably had contingency plans upon contingency plans. And now all they could do was scramble to pick up the pieces and hope that the resulting mess wouldn't be too catastrophic.

Either way, Elijah needs blood and he needs it _now._

She scrambles around, looking for a rock sharp enough. Then, she takes off one of the silky black gloves she'd been wearing and holds the rock to her wrist.

She doesn't give herself time to think. If she did, she knew she'd chicken out. This was necessary, though. She needed him and it's not like there would be any medical blood bags left around the school.

She scrapes the rock against her wrist a few times until there's at least a few droplets of blood. Then, she holds it to his mouth.

He's unresponsive at first, then after what feels like an eternity, his hands shoot up to grip her wrist and she feels fangs piercing the already raw and scraped skin.

Bonnie lets out a small cry and then it's over just as quickly as it begins.

"I'm sorry," Elijah says, sitting up. His color was already returning to normal.

She doesn't say it's okay because, really, nothing was okay about this entire situation.

Instead, she says, "It's not your fault." Then, without missing a beat, she continues, "Come on, we might still be able to track them."

She pulls herself off the ground and heads back for the school, Elijah hot on her heels. Jeremy and Matt meet her on her way to Ric's classroom.

"What happened?" Matt asks.

"Esther took Elena," Bonnie replies, not slowing down. She heads inside the classroom, ripping a map of Mystic Falls down from the bulletin board in the front. "I'm going to try and track her."

"What's _he_ doing here," Jeremy asks, nodding towards Elijah.

"He's been helping me with all this."

"You're kidding," he replies incredulously. "You have _got_ to be kidding."

"Does anything about this situation make it seem like I'm joking to you?" Bonnie snaps. Her patience was beyond worn thin by now.

Jeremy opens his mouth to respond, but Elijah smoothly cuts in with, "Considering your sister has just been taking by my psychotic mother to be used in a ritual, I believe a shift in your priorities might be in order."

Jeremy gapes at him.

"Look, I get not wanting to trust him," Bonnie tells Jeremy, "But there's a lot going on that you don't know or understand right now. However, we don't have time for this. We need to find Elena and we need to find her now."

Despite clearly wanting to argue some more, Jeremy sighs and offers her his hand so that Bonnie can use his blood in a locator spell.

"She put up a salt barrier around the school," Stefan informs them, entering the classroom. "We can't get out."

Bonnie doesn't dare allow her concentration on the spell to break, but internally she winces. Esther had done just about everything she could think of to delay them.

As the seconds continued to tick away and she poured more magic into her locator spell, she felt frustration welling up.

"What's wrong?" Elijah asks, noticing that it was taking much longer than usual.

"Esther must be fighting me," she replies, furrowing her brown.

"They try harder," Klaus growls.

_Where the hell did he even come from?_

She doesn't even bother to deign Klaus with a response.

"Matt, you and I could still leave," she hears Jeremy say.

"And where would you guys go?' Damon scoffs. "We don't even know where they are. And even if we did, what would _you_ be able to do?"

She tries to ignore all the petty squabbles that continue to break out, she really does. But she could only take so much when she was already under pressure and trying so hard to concentrate.

"Would everybody just shut the fuck up!" Bonnie screeches.

It falls silent and everyone looks at her in surprise. Even Elijah's eyebrows go up.

It's not like they haven't seen her angry before. It's just that her anger had a habit of coming in small, eerily calm waves and maybe even a painful spell or two. She's never really been one for yelling.

"Right now, _I'm_ the only one that can do something about what's happening by actually finding them and then taking down the barrier. So if you any of you are actually interested in surviving through this, then shut up so I can concentrate."

Thankfully, everybody fell silent then.

After a few more minutes of struggle, Bonnie finally manages to break through.

"The cemetery?" She asks in confusion. "Esther took Elena to Mystic Falls Cemetery?"

It's hard to miss the dark expression on Klaus's face. He obviously knew the meaning behind the location, but she's too afraid to ask.

Instead, she takes a deep breath and begins to work on bringing down the barrier spell.

* * *

When Elena wakes up, both her head and her left hand are insistently and painfully throbbing.

She tries to gather herself, remember what happened. All that she can recall, though, was arguing with Stefan and Damon and then…

"I apologize for the rough treatment, but you made it quite clear you would not come willingly."

_Esther._

With a small groan, Elena remembers how the witch managed to fool them all.

Apparently the apple didn't fall far from the tree because she had used a body-swapping trick just like Klaus had when he first arrived in Mystic Falls.

Only now, Esther was wearing her real face.

"It had to be you," Esther says. "You see, since I used your ancestor in the first spell, thus creating the doppelgängers, your blood is a powerful binding agent."

Now would be the part where Elena would have normally stood up and proclaim that she'd refuse to help her because this was all so _wrong._ But as she realizes the pain in her hand is due to a large gash that had been torn into her palm, Elena realizes Esther must have already helped herself.

"There's nothing more you can do," the witch assures her. "Everything is complete."

She gestures towards Ric's crumpled body on the ground and Elena scrambles to get to him.

There's so much blood that she slips and slides in it, staining her skin and her delicately beaded white dress.

"When he awakes, he'll be in transition. He'll be his old self once again and you can say your goodbyes," Esther tells her gently, as if she has done Elena a kindness in this whole ordeal. "Once he transitions, though, he'll embrace his destiny and the true hunter within."

Elena knows Esther has purposefully given her no time to plead her case. The older woman just simply didn't care. Still, though…

"How can you do this? What you did to Alaric, all those innocent people that got killed because of what you did to Alaric…how can you want your own children dead that badly?"

"Because I spent a thousand years watching my children. I saw the things they have done, the monsters they became, the monsters they created… _I_ created this." Pause. "I'm giving you a world where you and your loved ones no longer have to be terrorized by this plague."

"But there're not all bad," Elena protests. "What about Caroline? Or Bonnie's mother?"

"Sometimes sacrifices must be made in the name of the greater good. I'm sure you can understand that," Esther replies, her voice patient and her expression stone. "Either way, it is done. Take your time to say your goodbyes once he awakens." She moves to exit the crypt and Elena follows, still having more to say."

She almost runs right in the witch's back when she suddenly pauses.

"Hello, dear mother," Elijah says, a wry smile on his face.

"I told you once before, I will _not_ be swayed," Esther replies airily.

"Oh, we're not here to try and convince you of anything," Klaus called out, his voice taking on a maniacal edge. "We're here to kill you."

Both Originals make a move towards her and she barely has time to send a burst of magic to fling them away. Then, she sends them each wave after wave of pain.

Elena stands there for a few moments, unsure of what to do.

Then, she grabs hold of Esther, hoping to break her concentration long enough for either Klaus or Elijah to get to her. Esther had a one track mind, though, and she easily flings Elena to the side without breaking her attack on her sons.

Esther is suddenly thrown by an invisible force, hurled up against the wall and unable to move.

That's when Elena realizes that Bonnie has arrived, panting and out of breath as if she had run the whole way there.

For a moment, Elena thought Esther would break whatever spell Bonnie had done. She didn't, though, and it obviously wasn't for lack of trying. After the many spells Esther had cast tonight, she was clearly weakening and didn't have the energy.

"You're a sister witch. You must understand that I needed to restore the balance of nature," she pleads with Bonnie. "It's my duty. It's _your_ duty."

Bonnie has so much to say about Esther's "duty", how it had come at the expense of so many others, how she had given no thought to the ruined lives in her wake. Bonnie doesn't even know where to begin, though.

It the end it didn't matter because Klaus takes the opportunity to flash in front of her. His hand plunges into his mother's chest as if it was as easy as slicing through butter and pulls it back, her heart in his hand.

Bonnie can't find it in her to have a single ounce of pity in her for the now-dead witch…not after what she and her friends had been put through because of her.

"Are you okay?" Bonnie asks Elena, helping the brunette up. She was obviously shaken and a little banged up, but Bonnie didn't see anything potentially life-threatening.

"Ric…he…" Elena shakes her head, tears filling her eyes.

Bonnie's heart sinks. She wasn't surprised. The second she found out that Esther had taken Elena, their chances were slim to none. Still, though, she'd hoped against all hope that maybe they would actually make it there in time.

But they didn't. They never did.

Bonnie sits down with Elena on the front steps of the crypt, waiting there for Alaric to wake up. Soon, Jeremy, and Matt, and everyone else joins them.

Elijah and Klaus leave, taking Esther's body with them. Before he disappears from sight, Elijah gives Bonnie a long look. She had vaguely heard the two Originals arguing over whether they should end Ric here and now instead of allowing him to even wake in transition.

Thankfully, Elijah had convinced Klaus of what they all knew:

Ric wouldn't be at risk of losing himself to some hellish darkness because he would never complete the transition.

When Ric finally awakens, it comes as the hollowest and bitterest relief that they don't have to explain to them what happened. He remembered it all.

So, instead, they say their goodbyes.

"I'm sorry," is all Bonnie can say to him. "I tried."

"I know," he tells her with a small, sad smile. "And I'm grateful for it, but you shouldn't keep carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders." He looks over at the rest of his students. "None of you should."

"I'm so sorry," Elena says, visibly shaking with tears streaming down her face. "You wanted to leave, but I made you stay, made you wear that ring…"

Ric hushes her and Bonnie moves away, feeling like an intruder on the moment. She lingers around, though, till everyone's done, not sure what to say or think.

Damon agrees to stay with him till the end, so they all silently trudge through the woods. When they make it back to the road, Elijah is waiting, leaning up against his car with his hands tucked into his trouser pockets.

"Do you want us to wait for you?" Elena asks. She's clinging to Stefan's arm for dear life.

"No, go ahead. I'm sure you have a lot to do."

Truth be told, Stefan would probably be better adept to comfort Elena right now because Bonnie doesn't know what to think, or do, or say.

"You didn't have to stick around," Bonnie says, her voice quiet as she approaches Elijah.

"I wanted to," he replies simply.

He takes her home and they're silent the whole time.

They'd technically won. Esther was dead…and hopefully for good this time. The threat was over. It was a hollow victory, though.

"Do you wanna come in?" She asks, turning around and opening the door wider once she had stepped inside. She didn't even think twice about giving him an invitation. To say they had far surpassed any desire they'd once had to do each other harm would have been a gross understatement.

He enters her house for the first time and follows her as she heads straight for her bedroom.

"Do you have a first aid kit?" He asks her.

"Yeah, in my bathroom," she replies, gesturing towards to adjoining door. She begins to ask why, but then remembers her wrist. With everything else going on, the dull sting in her wrist had been pushed out of her mind.

"It's really not that big of a deal," she begins to protest, but Elijah had already located the first aid kit. So, she sat down and let him work on her wrist.

She lets out a small hiss as he presses an alcohol wipe to the wound.

"I'm sorry for doing this to you," he apologizes.

"I already told you earlier that it's not your fault," Bonnie whispers. "You needed blood and I…I needed you."

Silence falls over them for a few moments.

"If…" she trails off as Elijah puts a large band aide over the torn skin of her wrist. "You probably have things you need to do, considering your dead mother and all…"

"She has all the time in the world…assuming she stays dead this time."

She can't help the burst of laughter that escapes her. "I'm sorry" she says, bringing a hand up to cover her mouth. "That's not funny."

She laughs until she's crying.

He pulls her to him and she cries into his chest, not caring that she was ruining what was undoubtedly a very expensive suit.

"I just…" she pulls away from him. "I don't understand why these sorts of things keep happening. I try so hard and it doesn't even matter…even we win, we still lose."

He doesn't try to placate her with stereotypical bullshit lines like ' _It'll be okay',_ and that's a relief to her. He just holds her and lets her cry.

"I'm sorry," she says, scrubbing at her face with her hands. She's sure her carefully done eye makeup was ruined and had her resembling a raccoon by now. "I mean, you've got issues of your own…your mother _did_ just try to kill you."

"Oh, I've come to terms with my dysfunctional family long ago," he assures her wryly.

She gives him a thin smile before excusing herself to the bathroom. She scrubs the remainder of her makeup off her face before reemerging. This time, he's standing by her vanity, looking over all the pictures she has there.

He turns to face her and she finds herself moving to him, her lips meeting his frantically.

Before she really thinks about it, she's reaching her hands up towards the straps of her dress, intending to slide them over her shoulders to allow the dress pool at her feet. He stops her before she can, though, placing his hands over hers to still them.

"You've been through too much tonight," he says. Their faces are still close together, his lips brushing against hers with every word. "You don't want your first time to be when you're not thinking clearly."

Bonnie blinks in surprise. She knows for a fact she's never told him she was a virgin (they'd never reached that point until now) and she can't help but wonder what had given her away. She normally would have found it embarrassing, but her headspace was too crowded tonight to really care.

"I'm thinking clearly enough," she protests. Her hands slide out from under his and move up to grip his lapels. "I'll admit that I didn't exactly wake up with the express idea of having sex with you tonight," she admits bluntly. "But after everything that's happened tonight…I could really use some good."

Okay, so that sounded pretty lame. And it definitely wasn't a good reason for having sex, but she just couldn't quite articulate what she was feeling. On second thought, though, it sounded like she was using him. It wasn't her intention, but maybe she was…

Still, though, she can't deny the strong feelings she has for him. She had felt so low for so long and suddenly he came around and it seemed like her had seen her when no one else would. Maybe the timing wasn't right and maybe the trauma of tonight was pushing her to this, but she still wanted it…she wanted _him._

In an attempt to drown out the noise inside her head, she presses her lips to his again. This time the kiss is softer, slower.

She reaches up towards the straps of her dress again and this time is successful in sliding them down. The black fabric pools at her feet. This time, she decides that if he denies her again, she'll let it drop. She'll feel embarrassed as all hell and would have no idea how to ever face him again, but she'd let it drop.

She resists the urge to cover herself up as she watches him look her over. If she had been planning on this, she probably would have worn something more enticing than a nude-colored strapless bra and a pair of black cotton panties that left everything covered. Obviously, she was no seductress.

Trying not to fidget, she waits for him to decide. Her heart was beating so fast that for a few moment she actually wonders if the organ might just burst from her chest. Then, he closes the distance between them, cupping her face in his hands and tilting her chin towards his.

When he lifts her up, she lets out a little gasp. Her legs wrap around his waist in an instinctual manner and before she can gain her bearings, she finds herself on her back in her bed. He hovers over her, his lips meeting hers again and again.

"Ow," she finds herself muttering into their kiss as bobby pins unpleasantly poke her head. He pulls back, wondering if he was crushing her. "Sorry, it's all the pins for this stupid hairstyle," she explains, sitting up and starting to release the pin curls she had painstakingly created.

God, if he hadn't guessed she was a virgin already, he certainly did now.

"This is so not sexy," she mutters when her hair is finally free and cascading down past her shoulders.

His fingers reach out, touching one of her now tightly wound curls. Then, he cups her face gently before kissing her again. His lips trail across her jawline as she reaches for his tie, loosening the silk fabric from its carefully done knot before letting it fall to the floor.

She begins working on the buttons of his shirt. Her fingers fumble so much and she ends up jerking a little too hard, sending buttons flying across her room.

"I'm making a complete joke out of myself tonight," she says with a scoff.

He presses his index against her lips to silence her. "You're perfect," he tells her.

Her eyes not leaving his, she slides his shirt of, her fingers gliding down his biceps. He kisses her again, leaning into her as she lays back down. She lets out a small sigh as his lips move from hers, down her neck, until he reached the top of her bra where some cleavage spilled out. His lips ghost over the tops of her breasts.

A small nudge encourages her to arch her back so he can reach around and unhook her bra. Both trepidation and anticipation flutter in her belly once the fabric is removed. It doesn't escape her notice, though, that every move of his is deliberate and languid, giving her time to change her mind or pull away.

His palm comes up and cups one breast while his lips meet the other. She gasps at the sensation, arching into it.

After he pays homage to her breasts, he kisses his way down her stomach until he reaches the band of her panties. He pauses, looking up at her and silently asking for permission. She gives it by raising her hips, allowing him to slip the fabric off.

His lips trail after panties, pressing gentle kisses down her legs. It tickles a little, but at the same time she finds it so erotic.

Then, he's gently nudging her legs apart until he's settled between them. He pauses for a moment, looking up at her and she knows that if she wanted to, she could stop this now. Every movement tonight has been slow, gentle, and deliberate, giving her every opportunity in the world to change her mind. She doesn't want to, though.

When she feels his mouth on her center, she gasps and instinctively reaches down to grasp his hair. The feeling is indescribable and she almost couldn't believe how amazing it feels.

Soon, she feels a tightening in her belly that suddenly snaps as her world bursts into a million colors of pleasure.

When she comes back to reality, Elijah is look up at her again, his hands rubbing along the outside of her thighs in a soothing manner.

"Are you okay?"

"Better than okay," she says with a breathy laugh, feeling winded like she had just run a mile.

He makes his way back up, pressing feather-light kisses along her belly, the valley of her breasts, the curve of her neck. She can feel his hardness pressing against her through the fabric of his pants.

"Are you sure?"

She tilts her chin up, her lips brushing his. "Yeah, I'm sure." Then, she reaches for his belt, fumbling with it a bit.

When they finally succeed in removing his trousers, Elijah's hand slides down her side until it's underneath thigh, holding it up and opening her wider for him so he can settle his hips in between hers. Then, he enters her with a smooth, single thrust.

She had been expecting some pain. Caroline had always told her that it would hurt at first. It doesn't, though. Instead, it's strange, unfamiliar sensation, but not one that's unpleasant.

He doesn't move, giving her time to adjust to this new feeling, instead giving her a deep, languorous kiss. Then, after a few moments, he begins to move.

His thrusts are slow and shallow at first before becoming deeper and picking up pace. She gasps as pleasure begins to coil in the pit of her stomach once again. She feels her peak come again and he continues thrusting into her, making her build up again.

As one orgasm rolls into another, she begins to wonder if it's actually possible to die from too much pleasure. It really wouldn't be such a bad way to go, truth be told.

When Elijah finally reaches his peak, he hovers over her his breath coming shallowly. Then, he peppers her face with kisses before rolling off her and onto his back, gathering her into his arms.

"That was…" _Perfect._ That's the word she wants to say…can she really call it that, though? When they woke up in the morning, it wouldn't magically make the events of last night disappear. Still, though… "It was perfect," she says, pressing her lips softly against his pecs. Then she lays her head against his chest and lets herself drift off to sleep.


End file.
